Saudi canal ‘to turn Qatar into an island’
SAUDI ARABIA intends to literally carve up the Arabian Peninsula to spite its tiny neighbour Qatar, inviting companies to construct a canal that would turn the emirate into an island, according to Saudi media reports.
The kingdom, which has led a blockade on Qatar for more than a year, has invited five companies to bid for the project, Makkah newspaper reported, adding that a Saudi military base would be built in the kilometre-deep buffer zone between the future “Salwa Canal” and Qatar.
The project had been first floated in the kingdom’s media in April, when the Saudi-owned Al-arabiya broadcaster said the 37-mile (60km) by 220-yard (200m) canal would include a tourist resort, a military base and a nuclear waste dump.
Makkah reported that the contract winner would be announced within three months. There was no official Saudi confirmation of the project.
Some Saudis celebrated the news. “Yet another historical moment for our country, we are changing geography of the world (sic),” wrote one on Twitter.
Qataris have reacted with outrage. Their country’s only land border is with Saudi Arabia. “Digging the Salwa Canal reminds me of the Battle of the Confederates when the Jews of Khaibar and the infidels of Quraish and their allies surrounded the Muslims in Medina,” tweeted Ahmed al-sulaiti, a Qatari writer, referring to a battle between the prophet Mohammed’s forces and his enemies.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt launched their blockade in June 2017, accusing Qatar of supporting terrorism and Islamist extremist groups.
The new reports on the canal project come days after Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-khalifa, Bahrain’s foreign minister, said there was no end in sight to the blockade. “The information in our hands today does not indicate any glimmer of hope for a solution now,” he told a Saudi-owned newspaper.
Qatar, a gas-rich country, depends on imports for basic foodstuffs. Following the blockade it flew and shipped in thousands of cows to provide milk. It has also became increasingly reliant on Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional nemesis, and Turkey.