An Iraqi-UAE consortium is advancing the US$700 million World Link Transit Cable Project, a hybrid subsea and terrestrial fiber-optic network designed to establish a new digital corridor connecting Asia and Europe through Iraq and Turkey. The phased construction is expected to span four to five years.
The World Link network is structured as a transit-first backbone, optimized for hyperscale traffic. It begins with a submarine fiber segment from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to the Faw Peninsula in Iraq, with planned branch connections to Gulf Cooperation Council members including Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.
Engineering targets include over 900 Tbps aggregate capacity and sub-100 millisecond latency between European and Middle Eastern nodes, supporting AI workloads, cloud distribution, and financial market traffic. The system will operate on a carrier-neutral model, enabling multiple telecom operators to lease capacity.
