The news comes as disruption to Red Sea subsea cables has highlighted the importance of redundant routes that avoid the geo-political instability around the gulf of Aiden, through the Red Sea and through the Red Sea.
Hiyam Al-Yasiri, Iraq’s minister of communications said the project aims to boost Iraq’s position in the Middle East as a connectivity provider between Europe, the Gulf Region and Asia.
The deal with Zajil telecom was revealed by Al-Yasiri to be the first of many planned by the ministry, with future land and subsea cables to be deployed in the future.
Long term, Iraq plans to become fundamental to a secure land corridor that mitigates the need to use the Red Sea submarine cable systems.
Approval has already been secured to connect Al-Faw in southern Iraq to the United Arab Emirates and further agreements are expected to better correct Iraq to other Gulf states such as Oman, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
Al-Faw is the landing destination of two subsea cables that connect to Iraq, the FALCON Cable and the GIBCS MENA cable.
Al-Yasiri said that a third cable would connect Saudi Arabia to Iraq soon. 2Africa is also expected to land in Iraq at the Al-Faw station this year.
Zajil Telecom is a part of Kalaam Group, and in January this year hired a new CEO, Yusuf Ahmed.
Ahmed was touted by Kalaam Group and his predecessor, Waleed Al Qallaf as having the necessary expertise to guide Zajil Telecom into a leader in enterprise connectivity solutions in Kuwait.
