Saudi Arabia wants to replace Israel with Syria as the transit country for a fiber-optic cabledesigned to connect the kingdom to Greece through the Mediterranean Sea, two regional officials familiar with the project told Middle East Eye.

Saudi Arabia'sinsistence that it be connected to Greece through Syria,and not Israel, as previously discussed, underscores how regional alignments are shifting as Riyadh looks to bolster Damascus’s standing in the region and potentially isolate Israel.

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has publicly accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, where over 72,000 Palestinians have been killed. Riyadh is also at odds with the UAE, Israel’s closest Arab partner, in Yemen, Sudan, and the Red Sea.

Athens is trying to position itself as a hub between Europe and the Middle East for energy, real estate and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Greece has courted Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia for investment, but it is particularly close to Israel, which policymakers in Athens view as an ally against Turkey, and an insurance policy to keep the US engaged in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Saudi Arabia's shift on the project could throw a wrench in Greece’s relationship with Israel, if it is indeed snubbed in the new route.

Fiber-optic cables carry essential digital services from country to country in milliseconds using pulses of light. Their importance is growing as Gulf states position themselves as exporters of AI, seeking to send data to Europe.

Greece and Saudi Arabia announced the East to Med data Corridor, or the EMC project, in 2022. It is a joint partnership between Saudi Telecom (STC), the Greek electricity provider PPC, Greek telecoms and the satellite applications company, TTSA.

At the time, Saudi Arabia was in talks with the US on a deal that would see them normalize relations with Israel. Those negotiations were derailed by the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks, which Israel retaliated against by launching an offensive on Gaza that the United Nations and human rights groups have deemed a genocide.

Israel also attacked Lebanon, Syria and Iran.“There were a number of projects that planned to go through Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel - this was one of them,”Julian Rawle, a US-based submarine fibre-optic cable consultant, told MEE.

Source: ZeroHedge News