Saudis Threaten to Turn Qatar Into an Island
12th April 2018
Dubbed the ‘Salwa Canal’, the project is to be funded entirely by private investors from the KSA and UAE and executed by Egyptian firms, building on their experience widening the Suez Canal.
The canal would run from Salwa in the west to Ras Abu Gamys, 37 miles (60 km) to the east. It would be more than 200 yards (200 m) wide and 50-65 feet (15-20 m) deep, and thus be able to accommodate merchant and passenger ships of up to 968 feet (295 m) long and 108 feet (33 m) wide, with a maximum draught of 40 feet (12 m). The estimated cost would be around 2.8 billion Saudi riyals (app. $747 million).
As it is a unilateral project, the canal would run entirely on KSA territory, less than a mile (about 1 km) south of the Saudi-Qatari border. This would leave a strip of Saudi territory on the new island, which the Kingdom aims to use to install a military base, and a dumping site for waste from a nuclear power plant, yet to be built.
That would be amusing.