Two Submarine Cables to Land in Iraq

By Jason Ma, Data Center Dynamics
September 9, 2025

Contracts have been signed to land two submarine cables in Iraq.

On August 12, Iraq’s Minister of Communications Hiyam Al-Yasiri announced that the country would see its fifth submarine cable landed at Al-Faw, a coastal port on the Persian Gulf.

Details about the cable – its name, its other cable landing stations, and its length – were not disclosed.

An agreement was signed between the General Company for Communications and Informatics – a division of Iraq’s Ministry of Communications – and Emirati company Breeze Investments.

Information about the latter is sparse.

The Minister stated that the government had also given approval to Breeze to establish a land network across the Iraqi corridor, which is intended to facilitate the attractiveness of the country as a hub for data traffic.

Two weeks later, on August 27, the minister announced that Iraq would land its sixth submarine cable in Al-Faw at the Alfa cable landing station. The cable, to be operated by Bahraini telco Batelco, is set to land in Iraq by late 2026 or early 2027.

Batelco-owner Beyon recently announced the Khaleej North submarine cable extension project; an 800-kilometer submarine cable system that will further expand the the in-development Al Khaleej. The Al Khaleej cable system itself is a branch of the SeaMeWe-6 cable, which is due to go live next year.

Batelco is a subsidiary of the Beyon Group, a Bahraini conglomerate specializing in tech.

Beyon also has data center interests – in November 2024, Batelco signed an MoU with Qareeb Data Centers to develop a data center in Manama Bahrain, and in February, Beyon signed an agreement to use Oracle for its sovereign cloud services.

All of Iraq’s current subsea connections – 2Africa, Falcon, Gulf Bridge International Cable System/Middle East North Africa Cable System, and the forthcoming Fiber in Gulf – land in Al-Faw.

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