Saudi Arabia has begun the first phase of a new border security project along its northern borders, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
Phase 1 of the “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques project for border security” was kicked off at a ceremony in Jeddah with a visiting delegation from neighboring Bahrain.
Crown Prince Salman, Chief of General Intelligence Prince Khalid bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz, Minister of Interior Prince Mohammed bin Naif Minister of Interior, and others including officials from neighboring Bahrain attended an opening ceremony for the project in Jeddah.
A display of the border security project at the unveiling ceremony in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Photo via SPA.
In a statement, the SPA said the “highly-equipped border security project includes 3397 trainees, 60 trainers, eight command and control center, 32 rapid response centers, three rapid intervention squads, 38 back and front gates, 78 monitoring towers, 10 monitoring and surveillance vehicles, 1450000 meters of fiber optics networks, 50 radars, and 900-kilometer security fence, reducing the number of infiltrators, drug traffickers, weapon and cattle smugglers to zero level today.”
As Voice of America notes, the SPA did not specify Iraq by name, but the threat from the Islamic State extremist group’s spread in Iraq may be a driving factor for the border:
Saudi Arabia announced plans for a border fence on the same region originally in 2009, but little reporting on the subject after the announcement has been available. It is unclear if the current project is a continuation of that announcement.
The Kingdom’s border with Yemen has also proven to be tough to control for the Saudi government. In 2009, EADS announced that it was the contractor for the Saudi government to build “a system of fences, watchtowers, radar, day/night cameras, and communications, with links back to command centers that can pool data at the local, regional and national levels,” Defense Industry Daily reported in 2009.
