Walls and Fences in the 21st Century (Part 10 of 18)

[For an explanation of these 18 posts, see Part 1 published on 3/27/2019.]

Saudi Arabia’s Iraq Fence and Yemen Wall

The 560-mile desert border between Saudi Arabia and Iraq is called “no man’s land.” But that has never prevented people from crossing it illegally. So, in 2006, Saudi Arabia announced plans to build an electric fence along this entire border with Iraq.

At first, Saudi Arabia’s government was troubled by some of the country’s own radical, Muslim, male citizens illegally crossing its northern border to fight as insurgents in an Iraqi civil war. After that, Saudi officials worried about sectarian violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims that was increasing in this Iraq war. It was spilling over into Saudi Arabia and thus threatening that country’s security.

By late 2014, ISIS possessed much of Iraq and controlled some of southern Iraq. One of ISIS’s announced goals was to invade Saudi Arabia to take possession of Islam’s two holiest mosques located in the cities of Mecca and Medina. And ISIS wanted to make Saudi Arabia the centerpiece of its envisioned caliphate.

So, in September, 2014, Saudi Arabia began construction of a planned fence along its border with Iraq. It is two chain-link fences topped with razor wire that are 100 meters apart and separated by a ditch. It will have much radar, many day/night cameras, nearly 1.5 million meters of underground fiber optic cables, sensors, seventy-eight watchtowers, and thirty-two military response stations with helipads.

In 2003, Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia began constructing a combination pipe-and-concrete wall on its 1,100-mile southern border with Yemen. Its announced purpose was to stem infiltration of hashish and gun smugglers. But its main purpose was to prevent Islamic extremist insurgencies and contain the Saudi’s conflict with Houthi Shiites in Yemen. This wall project has had multiple stop-starts due to negotiations with Yemen’s failing government.

In 2006, Saudi Arabia’s southeastern neighbor, the United Arab Emirates, began building a barrier on its border with Oman. It was mostly to prevent illegal immigration.