Saudi Arabia Eyes Up Canal Border Idea, Turning #Qatar From A Peninsula Into An Island
▻https://www.forbes.com/sites/dominicdudley/2018/04/06/saudi-canal-qatar-island
A proposal to dig a canal along the length of the Saudi-Qatari border has emerged, in the latest surprising twist in the ongoing diplomatic and economic standoff between the two countries.
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The canal will be dug 1km inland from the Saudi-Qatar border, with the zone between the new waterway and the frontier likely to be reserved for military and security use. It is not clear what access – if any –will be given to Bedouin tribes that have historically traversed the area.
Given the doubtful commercial benefits of the project, it is the security aspect which may prove of most interest to Riyadh if it does give the green light to the canal.
The Qatar-Saudi border has been the scene of violent clashes in the past, including an incident in 1992 when three people died. The two countries only finalised the demarcation of their border in 2001. In December last year, Saudi Arabia said it had permanently closed the only official border crossing with Qatar, at Salwa. Both countries have been spending huge amounts on military equipment in an ongoing regional arms race.
The reports suggest the canal will be 60km in length, although in reality it will have to be longer than that – 60km is roughly the distance as the crow flies from coast to coast across the isthmus, but the border travels in an arc and it is more like 70km from Salwa on the northern side of the peninsula to the ‘inland sea’ on the south – from where there is a shared channel out to the waters of the Gulf.
If the canal project does get the nod from officials, Saudi media reports say it could be completed within 12 months. On the surface that looks to be a tight schedule. The most recent major canal project in the region – a second, 72km-long lane of the Suez Canal – took around 12 months to develop, between August 2014 and August 2015. However, only around half of that distance involved digging a new channel, the rest involved expanding and deepening an existing path.
