JEDDAH, 15 November 2006 — Saudi Arabia will begin building next year a security fence along its 900-km border with Iraq in order to prevent terrorists from sneaking into the country, Interior Minister Prince Naif announced yesterday. He said the project would cost SR45 billion ($12 billion).
“A border fence separating us from Iraq is essential to protect the country. I expect work on the border fence will begin next year,” he said in comments published by Kuwait’s Al-Anbaa Arabic daily yesterday.
“The cost could reach $12 billion, including $500 million to build the fence itself which should be finished in five to six years,” he said, adding that the fence would be equipped with sensors.
The government earlier this year invited bids to provide security systems along the border.
Saudis are among the many Arabs who have gone to Iraq to join the insurgency against US-led forces and the US-backed government in Baghdad.
“All of Iraq’s neighbors are suffering directly from what is happening in Iraq as the international forces there are engaged in a vicious war against terrorist groups on the one hand and are trying to prevent a sectarian war between Sunnis and Shiites on the other and they cannot control the border,” Naif said, stressing the need for the fence.
The minister said the fence would also help stop smuggling of weapons, drugs and other prohibited things and prevent individuals from crossing into the Kingdom illegally through the Iraqi border.
He said the fence would have 135 gates with advanced monitoring systems and added that the Iraqi interior minister has welcomed the project.
Nawaf Obaid, a security adviser, said the fence would have electronic sensors. “The problem has been compounded by the fact that there has been almost no security presence on the Iraqi side of the border since the US invasion,” Obaid said.
Since 2004, Saudi Arabia has spent about $1.8 billion to shore up its defenses along the border with Iraq.
US officials said last April that captured Saudis constituted one of the five most active groups of foreigners fighting US-led forces in Iraq. Between September 2005 and April 2006, security forces arrested 23 Saudis in Iraq, compared with 51 Syrians and 38 Egyptians, US officials said earlier this year.
Prince Naif also disclosed that the Kingdom had received 23 wanted Saudis from the allied forces in Iraq. Analysts have emphasized the significance of the fence saying it would prevent terrorists from entering the eastern region where most oilfields are located.
Prince Naif called on Saudis not to make women’s driving an issue and said that a decision on the matter would be taken with the public interest in mind.
He criticized Shoura member Muhammad Al-Zulfa for taking up the issue at the consultative council. The difference of opinion on the matter could harm the Kingdom, he pointed out.
He said the ban on women’s driving was imposed considering the opinion of society. “This is not a priority. We have to achieve many other important rights of women, such as the right to vote...,” he added.
