Shafaq News- Baghdad
Iraq signed an agreement withQatar's GBI to market cross-border internet transit capacity through the CivilizationsRoad Project and received its first payment in foreign currency,Communications Minister Mustafa Sanad announced on Thursday.
Sanad said the agreement adopts the IndefeasibleRight of Use (IRU) model, a long-term telecommunications infrastructureframework, to lease strands of Iraq's fiber-optic network, marking the firsttime the country has used this system.
The project relies on a landcorridor stretching from al-Faw in southern Iraq to Rabia near the Turkishborder, linking data traffic from Asia and the Gulf to Europe through Turkiye. According to the minister, the route reduces latency compared with conventionalsubmarine cables, strengthens Iraq's position as an international digitaltransit hub, and has already attracted requests from several Gulf countriesover the past week to use the corridor.
The Communications Ministry launchedthe Civilizations Road Project into commercial operation in 2024 as Iraq'sfirst internet transit network, a roughly 2,000-kilometer fiber-optic corridorlinking the country with neighboring states through five border crossings:al-Faw, Safwan, al-Mundhiriya, Arar, and Rabia.
In March 2025, the ministry signedan agreement with Qatar's Ooredoo to establish Iraq's fourth submarine cable,and in May, Zain Omantel International announced a new telecommunicationscorridor linking the Gulf to Europe through Iraq.
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