Saudi Arabia plans to physically cut off Qatar by moat, nuclear waste and military base

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

The Hatfields and McCoys of the Middle East are at it again.

Saudi Arabia is going ahead with plans to turn Qatar into an island, by digging a moat (60km canal) on Saudi land, and fill in the remaining space with nuclear waste dumps and a military base.

Not sure how happy Saudi soldiers will be to get stationed in the isolated crescent, right next to the nuclear waste dump.

"Qatar Island": Saudis Launch Massive Canal Project To Cut Off Neighbor

Before:

Planned:

 

Oh, and just for good measure (and salt in the wound) the Saudis plan to build beach resorts on the new Saudi side of the canal.  Complete with a beachside view of the nuclear waste dumps and military base.  Hmmmm, not sure if they thought this bit through yet.

Anyway, Qatar prolly can't do too much to stop this, since it will all be done on Saudi land.

 

/ Side note: good thing the U.S. / Mexico border is too long to try this stunt.

 

 

[Guillaume Albasini + 851]

Now we know how they want to throw away the money they could earn with an expected oil production hike.

Then they will sell the concept to the Donald and you will have a canal full of nuclear waste on the mexican border.

[JunoTen + 118]

It's hard to feel any compassion for any of these two governments  as they finance terrorism and have no respect for human rights. Actually I hope they destroy each other. So I support this move from Saudi Arabia.

[Royalblood + 14]

rumors also abound that they're going after the Qatari art collection because MBS' just has to be bigger

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

These guys actually make the Taliban look good!  Amazing, the idiocy. 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

I cannot imagine any rational need for the moat and nuclear waste. It is a high price to pay for insulting a smaller country. 

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

17 minutes ago, ronwagn said:

I cannot imagine any rational need for the moat and nuclear waste. It is a high price to pay for insulting a smaller country. 

Wait, you mean this isn't part of MbS grand and glorious Vision 2030?

The visual marketing guy for Vision 2030 might get a bit annoyed:

Vision 2030 is a wide-reaching plan to diversify the Kingdom’s economic interests and carry the nation into a new post-oil paradigm. For our part, we could not be more proud to have been involved in bringing Vision 2030 to the world stage – by creating a fresh, engaging and contemporary identity, with a supporting visual language, to help position this new plan in audiences minds as being realistic, relevant, and of the moment.

 

Meanwhile ... 

[DanilKa + 443]

At one point when relations wasn't as bad, there was a plan to build a causeway from Bahrain which would substantially shorten trip from Khobar to Doha. Things have changed...

No practical implication of that $750M gesture - Qatar is effectively land-locked. No mention of nuclear dump either - may be fantasies of zerohedge dudes.

Not sure people will be flocking to this channel shores - plenty of empty beach between Salwa and Half-Moon Bay.

[Kate Turlington + 44]

3 hours ago, Tom Kirkman said:

Wait, you mean this isn't part of MbS grand and glorious Vision 2030?

The visual marketing guy for Vision 2030 might get a bit annoyed:

Vision 2030 is a wide-reaching plan to diversify the Kingdom’s economic interests and carry the nation into a new post-oil paradigm. For our part, we could not be more proud to have been involved in bringing Vision 2030 to the world stage – by creating a fresh, engaging and contemporary identity, with a supporting visual language, to help position this new plan in audiences minds as being realistic, relevant, and of the moment.

 

Meanwhile ... 

Tom, you made my day with this one. Laughed out loud. Still laughing ... 

I've spent a lot of time profiling MBS with some help from colleagues on the ground, and one thing that everyone agrees on is that he is obsessed with Qatar, even more so than Iran, and even when his obsession with Qatar is extraordinarily petty. There is an incredible amount of ego at play and it's beyond his control at this point. Hence the earlier art collection comment someone brought up as well (and, of course, the lovely moat, which he can surely just get one of the country's business elite to finance under threat of arrest and asset seizure). 

Edited June 22, 2018 by Kate Turlington

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

Thanks Kate.  MbS obsession with petty feud one upmanship is scaling new heights, and is absurdly humorous.  

Yes, I knew about MbS previous "my art cost more than your art" rivalry.  But this moat + nuclear waste hissy fit is ... inventively insane.

Waiting for MbS next masterful chess move in absurdity, to top this one, after Qatar eventually reacts.

[Sebastian Meana + 278]

6 hours ago, ronwagn said:

I cannot imagine any rational need for the moat and nuclear waste. It is a high price to pay for insulting a smaller country. 

Not really, any radiological weapon that tries to kill people by decay radiator is not a weapon of mass destruction is a weapon of mass disturbance, people get's mad by the word radiation without knowing real effect's, the radiation that you get by living in Chernobyl of Fukushima is lower than the radiation you get by living in telluride Colorado.

but most people doesn't know that, they get mad when they hear the world uranium radiation despide the awfull concepts of how radiator work that people has.

[Guillaume Albasini + 851]

Another stage for the rivalry : the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

FIFA has decided to expand the number of participating countries from 32  to 48 countries for the 2026 World Cup but wants also to apply this expantion to the 2022 World Cup. But Qatar is reluctant as it will force the gulf state to build 4 more very expensive stadiums or share the venue with another country. However it seems there’s already been talk of Iran being used as some kind of accommodation overspill...  An excellent way to infuriate even more MBS.

There was an interesting article in The Independent on this stuff and the Qatar-Saudi nasty rivalry...

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/world-cup-2022-qatar-48-teams-fifa-bad-news-saudi-arabia-kuwait-iran-a8303706.html

[Marina Schwarz + 1,576]

4 hours ago, Guillaume Albasini said:

However it seems there’s already been talk of Iran being used as some kind of accommodation overspill...  An excellent way to infuriate even more MBS.

Okay I laughed out loud at this. Imagine Israel (and Saudi, why not) qualifying for WC 2022 and having to play in Iran. Oh, the beauty of it!

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

Even the Canadians can get in on this act.

If you look at the map of British Columbia just south of the city of Vancouver, you will see this tiny spit of land south of the Delta which is called "Point Roberts."  Now, Point Roberts is actually American Soil, a historical anomaly due to the Border being set at the 49th Parallel, which runs into the Pacific above Bellingham, Washington State, but then continues across a little gulf and then slices off a few miles of Point Roberts for the Americans.  Even the kids in Point Roberts have to travel by school bus across that border twice in each direction to go on a fifty-mile hike to the "mainland" for high school, there not being one on the Point.  And folks living there drive that 50 miles each way to go shopping, or you have these Duty problems.  (The Canadians just wave that bus through, they really don't much care, routine by now.)

SO:  if Canada wants to, nothing to stop it from digging a Great Big Moat right smack across Point Roberts at the North End and building a Big Wall, Trump style, all out of aluminum and steel. And let the unemployed Steelworkers go picket and shout insults across the Moat.  Hey, why not.

[Olga Tkachuk + 33]

It's the new, friendlier face of Saudi 😂

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

Well now, this bit might grab a bit more media attention.  The article is an amusingly irate heap of invective against Qatar (reminds me of the ZOMG RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA ! ! !  bogeyman nonsense in U.S. media) but the bit about affecting the next World Cup caught my eye:

Why the Salwa Canal project would constitute a severe blow to Qatar

If irreversibly cut from its only land border, Qatar would be faced with a new conundrum in hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Despite Qatar’s best efforts to upgrade its infrastructure, there would be no way for Qatar to accommodate all World Cup guests if cut off from its neighbouring state, where some fans and players would consider staying.

While Doha has a lot to lose from the canal, Saudi Arabia has a lot to gain: Tourist resorts with private beaches in Salwa, Sakak, Khor al Adaid and two in Ras Abu Qamis; seaports in Salwa and in Aqlat Al Zawayed to complement the one in Ras Abu Qamis and marinas for yachts and water sports on the two banks of the canal.

 

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

15 minutes ago, Tom Kirkman said:

While Doha has a lot to lose from the canal, Saudi Arabia has a lot to gain: Tourist resorts with private beaches in Salwa, Sakak, Khor al Adaid and two in Ras Abu Qamis; seaports in Salwa and in Aqlat Al Zawayed to complement the one in Ras Abu Qamis and marinas for yachts and water sports on the two banks of the canal.

 

I just don't picture "resorts" on the banks of a 350-ft wide industrial canal, with large freighters going through.  That would be even more oppressive than a tourist resort along the Suez Canal.  Who needs it?  Steamboats with your pina colada?  

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

12 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

I just don't picture "resorts" on the banks of a 350-ft wide industrial canal, with large freighters going through.  That would be even more oppressive than a tourist resort along the Suez Canal.  Who needs it?  Steamboats with your pina colada?  

Promoting water sports in Saudi Arabia just makes me giggle a bit.

The article is a giant screed, an invective, trying to promote Saudi Arabia as heaven on earth for tourists, and Qatar as a slice of hell.

Invective:

noun

1. insulting, abusive, or highly critical language.

   "he let out a stream of invective"

[Missy + 43]

12 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

I just don't picture "resorts" on the banks of a 350-ft wide industrial canal, with large freighters going through.  That would be even more oppressive than a tourist resort along the Suez Canal.  Who needs it?  Steamboats with your pina colada?  

That seems like it would be the least of my disappointments whilst vacationing in Saudi Arabia. I can drive there now, though.

[Missy + 43]

[Guillaume Albasini + 851]

Welcome to the Nuclear Waste Luxury Resort.

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

14 minutes ago, Guillaume Albasini said:

Welcome to the Nuclear Waste Luxury Resort.

Can't resist comparing San Francisco to Saudi Arabia...

Take a look inside the former radioactive-waste site off the coast of San Francisco that's turning into a $5 billion housing development

[Rodent + 1,424]

10 hours ago, Tom Kirkman said:

Can't resist comparing San Francisco to Saudi Arabia...

Take a look inside the former radioactive-waste site off the coast of San Francisco that's turning into a $5 billion housing development

"To top it off, Treasure Island is especially vulnerable to damage caused by earthquakes because it's made of loose sand. An earthquake may make roads buckle and buildings collapse."

oh, that's all....

[HermitMunster + 146]

Yeah, illusions of grandeur, perhaps.Just like they plan on building King Abdullah City which will be bigger than Washington, D.C. I just don't see it happening. A lot of it is just smoke and mirrors to get as high of a valuation for Aramco as possible before it goes to IPO. They are slow-rolling that IPO in a way that would make Elon Musk proud.

[Olga Tkachuk + 33]

Especially having lived in these places, the level of absurdity is more than entertaining. These 'tourists resorts' of Saudi are most laughable - while the country does have some amazing historic spaces such as Madain Salih that their psychotic religious sector hasn't yet managed to destroy, and amazing Red Sea snorkeling that hasn't yet been decimated by a flood of people, the only people willing to put up with the restrictions of Saudi beach resorts or travel are those who already live there, with very, very few exceptions. It is the most unwelcoming country in every way imaginable, from social norms to weather to costs, and these ridiculous dreams of 'tourism' are as unrealistic as much of their diversification plan.

Not all of this is just smoke and mirrors for Aramco going IPO - both Saudi AND Qatar have publicized very similar delusions over the last decade, with some there actually believing this insanity, despite repeated, and spectacular failure even in regards to things that should be possible, such as greater employment of nationals and less reliance on foreigners to do almost everything, from construction to every aspect of modern knowledge economy. One thing that people don't need to work on there is the aforementioned delusions of grandeur. 

These people can't handle a little circus without firing ministers (in case of Saudi), and Doha is yet to pull off a successful football tournament that doesn't lock hundreds of international ticket holders out of final games as in 2011 Asian Cup, and the more recent Emir Cup, but delusions they have plenty of. And also nasty streak of malevolence. Which is why the actual nuclear dump is within a realm of possibility.

Edited June 26, 2018 by Olga Tkachuk