WATER WARS

The Middle East's deadly thirst

Israel has agreed an extraordinary arms-for-water deal with Turkey. Whether this goes ahead or not, water lies at the heart of Israel's relationship with its Arab neighbours and the Palestinians - and poses some of the toughest challenges for peace in the Middle East.
Turkey agreed an extraordinary plan to ship millions of tons of water in giant tankers to Israel in a deal linked to hi-tech weapons shipments to Ankara. A few years ago the plan was to pump fresh water between the two countries in an undersea pipe, but the project was deemed prohibitively expensive. The tankers will still cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build and operate and yet provide less than 3 per cent of Israel's rapidly growing needs.