Saudi Arabia to turn Qatar into island by digging new canal
Tehran (KNA) - A high-ranking Saudi official says his country is seriously considering constructing a canal that would turn tiny neighbor Qatar into an island, amid the ongoing Saudi-led diplomatic and trade boycott against the energy-rich Persian Gulf kingdom.
As a citizen, I am impatiently waiting for the details of the implementation of the East Salwa island project. This great and historic project will change the region's geography," Saud al-Qahtani, a senior adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, wrote on his Twitter page on Friday.
The project had been first floated in Saudi media in April, when the Arabic-language online newspaper Sabq reported that the 60 kilometers (37 mile) by 200 meters canal would be 20 meters deep, and that the waterway would be built at least 0.6 miles from the border with Qatar
The canal would include a tourist resort and a nuclear waste dump in addition to a military base.
The cost of the project was estimated at 2.8 billion Saudi riyals (roughly $745 million).
The Makkah newspaper published a report in June that Riyadh was moving ahead with the plans, and five international companies had been invited to bid for the project, with a winner to be announced in September.
This is while several analysts have cast doubts on the ambitious idea.
Ali Shihabi, founder of the Washington-based Arabia Foundation, said the Salwa Channel reports were probably psychological warfare.
"If you create a canal, you do Qatar a favor because you create a 'moat' to protect them when now their land borders are fully exposed to Saudi Arabia," Shihabi said.
Source: PressTV