Saudi official hints at plan to turn Qatar into island by building canal

Adviser to crown prince expresses excitement at prospect of 'great historic project that will change the region’s geography'

Qatari side of the Abu Samrah border crossing with Saudi Arabia: current borders would be totally changed under suggested plans by the Saudis to dig a canal between the nations (Karim Jaafar/AFP/Getty Images)

A senior Saudi official has fuelled speculation the kingdom intends to dig a canal between itself and Qatar amidst an on-going feud between the Gulf nations.

The project, which would turn the tiny peninsula into an island, is already being seen as an attempt to tighten the blockade placed on it by Saudi Arabia and other regional rivals.

Details of the scheme appeared simultaneously in two state-linked Saudi newspapers – Sabq and al-Riyadh – in April, after a previous piece suggesting the project would take a year to complete.

Saud al-Qahtani, a senior adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has been alluding to the canal for months, but a tweet was the clearest reference yet.

“As a citizen, I am impatiently waiting for the details of the implementation of the East Salwa island project, this great historic project that will change the region’s geography,” he wrote.

Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar in June 2017 and accused it of supporting terrorism.

Doha has denied this charge, and many see the recent talk of canal building as an attempt by the Saudis to intimidate the small nation rather than a serious plan.

In news reports concerning the proposed scheme, unnamed sources described plans to construct a military base and a nuclear waste dump on the shores of the new canal.

The channel itself would stretch 37 miles (60km) and measure 200m wide and 20m deep. In total, the estimated cost was 2.8 billion riyals (£0.58bn).

Further reports in June indicated the Saudis were acting on these plans, and had invited five unnamed companies to bid on the project with a winner set to be announced in September.

The project, which would also include a new hotel resort, would isolate Qatar on the newly created “Salwa Island”, which it would share with the newly constructed military base.

Critics have described the plans as deliberate attempts to isolate Qatar.

After the dispute between Qatar and its neighbours erupted, its only land border was close and its state-owned airline was banned from using neighbouring airspace.

Efforts by Kuwait and the US to mediate have so far failed.