August 15, 2007 (LPAC) -- The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is launching feasibility studies to construct a modern railway network that will connect the states of the region together, and link the entire region to Eurasia, via Turkey.
Participating states are Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and potentially Yemen which is not yet a GCC member.
A plan for development of such rail links was part of a comprehensive development proposal that Lyndon LaRouche put forth in a June 2002 address in Abu Dhabi, at the same time that Blair and Cheney were preparing for the Iraq war. The Zayed Center where LaRouche spoke, was subsequently shut down under pressure from the Blair-Cheney cabal.
One part of the rail line now under consideration will run along the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, linking the six GCC member states, from Kuwait to Muscat, and passing through the major ports and industrial areas on the Arab Gulf.
On the western coast of the Arab Peninsula the railway will follow the tracks of the old Hijaz Railway, which once ran through Jordan and Syria to Turkey. The Hijaz Railway was demolished by the British Imperial army in World War I. It had been built by Germany and the Ottoman state at the beginning of the 19th Century.
Mohammad bin Ubeid Al Mazroie, the GCC Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Affairs of the Gulf Council, outlined the project in a recent speech in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Al-Mazroie said the GCC Transportation Ministers Committee has been charged with preparing a detailed feasibility study, and will present its recommendations to the 25th Session of the GCC Supreme Council. He cited the success of railway lines in many countries, due to the greater capacity, effectiveness, and safety of trains compared to other transportation systems. He also stressed the complementarity between the railway project and other major GCC projects involving water and electrical grids.
The State of Kuwait has repeatedly declared its interest in linking to the Eurasian Landbridge project through Iraq and Iran. However, that option remains on ice as long as Dick Cheney and his British controllers are in control of the region. The Abu Dhabi Information Affairs Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (DPMIO), where Al-Mazroie presented the plan, is a replacement for the Zayed Center which was shut down after the invasion of Iraq under pressure from the Blair-Bush alliance.
Lyndon LaRouche delivered a lecture to a major conference at the UAE's Zayed Center in June 2002 on the topic of Southwest Asia, a Strategic Crossroad. LaRouche's appearance at the same time that the British Blair-Cheney-Bush alliance was preparing for the invasion of Iraq, was one reason why the Zayed Center came under international pressure to close.
The DPMIO hosted another lecture last week on the building of a bridge connecting Asia to Africa through the Bab El-Mandab Strait between Yemen and Djibouti. Details of the lecture can be found on the DPMIO website: http://www.dpmio.com/
LaRouchePac reported details of the project on July 17.
