Oil is a great wealth in the Middle East and a gift from God. This region accounts for 67% of the world's oil resources, which not only provides rich oil wealth for the development of this region, but also becomes the deep cause of wars and conflicts in this region. In the 1973 war, Arabs also used their oil weapons wisely, which had a certain impact on the development of war and conflict.
There are also many factors competing for oil interests behind the Iraq war in 2003.
Affected by geographical factors, water resources in the Middle East are extremely scarce, and some conflicts are centered around the water resources that "water is more expensive than oil". Look at the war and conflict between Syria and Israel.
To sum up, oil resources and water resources will be supported by historical evidence and realistic facts, driven by the needs of world economic development, the covet of big countries and the maintenance and competition of their respective interests by regional countries, and will continue to be one of the deep-seated reasons for the turmoil and complicated contradictions and conflicts in this region for a long time.
How rich are the oil reserves in the Gulf? Before answering this question, let's listen to a joke. Someone once dug a well in the vast desert of Saudi Arabia to find water. However, every time a well is drilled, oil comes out of the well instead of water. It is also an exaggeration to say that in the Gulf region, chopsticks in the sand will produce oil. What is the actual situation? According to the exploration results, the oil reserves in the Gulf region are indeed extremely rich, just like a huge oil sea, covering eight countries along the Gulf coast, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Iraq and Iran. In 200 1 year, the total proven reserves in the Gulf region were 699 billion barrels, accounting for 65.7% of the total proven reserves in the world. Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar, the six oil-rich Gulf countries, have proven total oil reserves of about 457.5 billion barrels, accounting for about 46% of the world's total reserves. In addition to oil, the Gulf region is rich in natural gas reserves. The world's proven natural gas reserves are11800 million cubic meters, of which nearly 1/3 is in the Gulf. Therefore, people call the six Gulf countries "countries floating on the oil sea". However, you know what? Although the Middle East is rich in oil resources, it is very short of water resources.
The water resources in the Middle East are mainly distributed in the Nile Valley, Tigris River, Euphrates River and Jordan Valley. The area of Arab countries is140,000 square kilometers, accounting for 9% of the global land area, but water resources only account for 0.7% of the world's water resources. Coupled with the decrease in rainfall, most countries in the Middle East are seriously short of water, suffering from drought for more than ten years in a row and facing a serious water crisis, making water more expensive than oil in some areas. The world's per capita water consumption is 6.5438+0.3 million tons, while the Arab per capita is only 654.38+0.750 tons. In addition, the population of 2654.38+0 countries in the Middle East is growing at an average rate of 3%. It is predicted that the Arab population will reach 600 million in 25 years, and the per capita water consumption will fall below 700 tons (the per capita water consumption in some countries is less than 100 tons), which will further accelerate the shortage of water resources.
In the Gulf countries, seawater desalination reaches 65.438+0.5 billion tons every year. Urban greening in rich countries costs more than $500 to $65,438+0,000 per tree every year, and the cost of growing wheat can be seven times the international price. But poor countries are struggling for basic drinking water, and the disparity between the rich and the poor intensifies the contradiction in the Middle East. For example, the tiny Jordan River, which gave birth to two major religions, is the most hotly contested water source in the Middle East. The Jordan River belongs to Jordan, Syria and Israel. Over the years, Arabs and Israel have fought to the death over water resources, and four wars in the Middle East have been related to this. The Jordan River provides two-thirds of the water for Lake Galilee, Israel's main water source. The Johnston Agreement of 1955 stipulated that all parties should take water, but only Israel signed it. The Arab countries tried to cut off the Jordan River in the 1960s, and the Israeli army blew up the cutting-off equipment in Syria in 1965, which became one of the reasons for the 1967 war. Both Arab countries and Israel regard the destruction and competition for each other's water sources as their primary strategic goals, and Israel has occupied the Golan Heights, the birthplace of the Jordan River. The focus of Syrian-Israeli negotiations is not the Golan Heights, but the water source. Israel agreed to return the entire Golan, but insisted that Syria should not enter Lake Galilee. The Jordan River is also one of the difficult problems in the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, and Israel insists on occupying most of the water resources in the West Bank. At present, the water resources in Palestinian areas are completely controlled by Israel, and the per capita water consumption is only 1/4 of that of Jewish settlers, but the cost is twice as high. Pakistan had to over-extract groundwater, which made the water quality worse. The groundwater in Gaza has been salinized and inedible. Since the violent conflict, Pakistan's water resources have been neglected, and the water shortage is more serious.