The Gulf built oil pipelines to avoid Hormuz. It’s now doing the same for data
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE are financing competing data corridors through Syria, Iraq, and East Africa to bypass the two maritime choke points that threaten their digital connectivity.
Mar 11 2026
Six competing projects backed by Gulf nations are racing to build overland data routes to Europe through Syria, Iraq, and the Horn of Africa, aiming to give the region an alternative if the subsea cables it depends on are damaged.
The scramble has accelerated since Iran’s retaliatory strikes hit Amazon facilities in the Gulf and threatened both choke points through which virtually all the region’s data traffic flows. Saudi Arabia spent decades building the East-West pipeline and the United Arab Emirates built the Habshan-Fujairah route so that crude oil could reach global markets without passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Digital connectivity never got the same treatment. Now Gulf states are trying to replicate that feat for data in months.
The projects were conceived independently by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, which were divided until 2021 by a Saudi-led blockade of Qatar. The same divisions will determine whether any of the alternatives are built fast enough to matter, analysts say.
“The race to build overland corridors has reflected an element of competition for influence rather than an alignment of effort,” Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a fellow for the Middle East at Rice University’s Baker Institute, told Rest of World. “The prospect of prolonged and expanded military conflict in the region means that plans may be paused or reassessed.”
No terrestrial fiber-optic route between the Gulf and Europe has altered the region’s dependence on submarine cables running through the Red Sea. Building through Iraq or Iran was considered too dangerous for decades, and submarine cables were cheaper to lay, attracted more customers, and drove prices lower, reinforcing the pattern that sent virtually all traffic underwater through the Red Sea and overland across Egypt, according to Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at Kentik.
“I suspect not all of those cables will actually be constructed,” Madory told Rest of World.
The most advanced of the new projects is SilkLink. Saudi Arabia’s STC Group signed an $800 million contract on February 7 to build 4,500 kilometers (2,800 miles) of fiber across Syria to a submarine cable landing station at Tartus on the Mediterranean, with connections to Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. The first phase is expected to start within 18 to 24 months.
The project replaces an earlier plan that collapsed when the politics around it changed. The East-to-Med corridor, a venture between STC and Greece’s PPC, was announced in 2022 to run through Israel at a time when Saudi-Israeli normalization appeared within reach. The Gaza war ended those talks, and Saudi Arabia pivoted to a Syrian route through Damascus.
(and moar…)
https://restofworld.org/2026/gulf-overland-data-cables-europe-war/