Direct flights from Iran’s Kish Island to Qatari capital, Doha, is scheduled to be launched concurrent with the FIFA World Cup 2022, according to the secretary of the Supreme Council of Free Trade and Special Economic Zones of Iran.
“As per an agreement with the government of Qatar, over the course of the World Cup event, some 400 flights from Kish to Doha will be operated. Four cruise ships will be navigating the Persian Gulf waters traveling from Kish to Doha and back,” Saeed Mohammad was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
The official noted that the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts plans to host around 100,000 tourists for the World Cup 2022.
“We have increased the number of five-star hotels on Kish Island from 10 to 15, inaugurated two football fields and two body-building complexes, and upgraded three football pitches,” he added.
Kish is a 91.5-square-kilometer resort island in Bandar Lengeh County, Hormozgan Province, off the southern coast of Iran in the Persian Gulf. It has been declared the fourth tourist destination in Southwest Asia by the UNESCO Cultural Heritage List.
Kish Island is among the most beautiful coral islands in the Persian Gulf.
To make preparations for the big event, Mohammad said the ministries of cultural heritage; roads and urban development; sports and youth affairs; and economy, in addition to the Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran, have joined forces.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup is scheduled to be the 22nd FIFA World Cup competition, the quadrennial international men's football championship contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It is scheduled to take place in Qatar from Nov. 21 to Dec. 18, 2022. This will be the first World Cup ever to be held in the Arab world and the second World Cup held entirely in Asia after the 2002 tournament was held in South Korea and Japan.
Growing Economic Ties
Iran and Qatar have been forging stronger economic ties ever since a number of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia abruptly severed diplomatic relations with Doha in June 2017 and imposed a blockade on the Persian Gulf country, accusing it of supporting terrorist groups.
The Qatari government has denied the allegation as baseless, blasting the blockade as unjustified and a violation of international law.
Following the development, Iranian exporters have vied for the Qatari market in the absence of Doha's traditional Arab partners.
Qatar's Ambassador to Iran Ali bin Hamad al-Sulaiti thanked Tehran for its assistance to Doha one year after diplomatic and economic sanctions were imposed on Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran pioneered aid and humanitarian assistance to the Qatari government and tried to reduce the negative impacts of the siege on Qatari citizens. It opened its airspace to Qatari planes and rapidly sent foodstuff to make up for the abrupt cut in export of goods by the four countries. It also provided a passage for transferring goods by many countries to the Qatari government,” Sulaiti wrote in a memo.
Weeks after the United States imposed unilateral sanctions against Iran in 2018, Qatar Airways announced plan to expand operations in Iran.
Qatar Airways started a direct flight between Doha and Isfahan on Feb. 4, 2019.
Qatar Airways is among top 10 airlines capable of connecting, for instance, the airport of Iran’s top tourist city, Isfahan, to 160 points in the world. Isfahan's Shahid Beheshti Airport is the fourth Iranian airport hosting planes from the Qatari flagship airliner.
Qatar Airways' route to Isfahan topped the airline's other destinations in Iran, namely Tehran, Shiraz and Mashhad.
Plans to Build World’s Longest Tunnel Across Persian Gulf
Iran has raised the idea of building what would be the world’s longest tunnel, providing it with a physical connection to Qatar across the Persian Gulf waters.
According to local media reports, Roads Minister Rostam Qasemi will hold talks with his Qatari counterparts in Doha this week and, among the items up for discussion, is the idea of a tunnel from the Iranian port town of Dayyer to an unnamed point in Qatar.
Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization Managing Director Ali Akbar Safaei said the proposed new tunnel would “herald great developments both for Iran and for Qatar”.
It would also involve great costs which, given the parlous state of the Iranian economy, would almost certainly have to be largely shouldered by Qatar, as Forbes reported.
The shortest distance from the northern tip of the Qatari peninsula to the Iranian coast near Dayyer is around 190 km. That is around three times further than the current longest transport tunnel, a 68-km section of Line 6 of the Chengdu Metro in southwest China.
It would also be five times longer than the current record-holder for the longest undersea tunnel – the 38-km underwater section of the Channel Tunnel that connects France and the UK.
Another long tunnel, the Seikan Tunnel linking the Japanese islands of Honshu and Hokkaido under the Tsuguru Strait has a 23.3-km portion below the waves.
Safaei’s comments suggest Iran would like the new tunnel to accommodate both road and rail links, although it is unlikely that a road connection is feasible, given the distances involved. Currently, the world’s longest road tunnel is the 24.5-km Lærdal Tunnel in Norway, which has been carefully designed to tackle feelings of claustrophobia or inattentiveness that drivers might succumb to, with caverns every 6 km with special lighting to add variety and provide resting places.
It is very early days for the proposed scheme. The state-owned Press TV said the project would only go ahead once a joint Qatari-Iranian committee finished studies and negotiations on the project.
