3-day World Cup security exercise begins Monday

The ‘Watan’ joint exercise will begin Monday to confirm the security readiness of Qatar to host the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. The three-day exercise will be held with the participation of various entities and 13 brotherly and friendly countries. Addressing a press conference, Lt Col Mubarak Sherida al-Kaabi, commander of the exercise, said the drill will be conducted with the participation of all military, civil, organisational and service authorities in Qatar according to their competence under the patronage of HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz al-Thani, Chairman of the Security Committee for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.




The press conference was also attended by Jassem Abdulaziz al-Jassim, Executive Vice President of Operations for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 along with senior officials from the Ministry of Interior (MoI) and representatives of various communities.
Touted to be the first of its kind, Watan security exercise is the largest in terms of the number of participating authorities, internally and externally. “Also, it features the diversification of various scenarios and gradations based on all kinds of potential internal and external risks during the organisation of the World Cup after being studied by specialists and experts in the areas included in the exercise,” Lt Col al-Kaabi noted.




He said the exercise aims to enhance the roles of the authorities concerned while carrying out their regular and additional tasks during the event in order to measure the speed of response to emergency situations. “This is to activate the command and control mechanism and joint cooperation between military and civil authorities in order to achieve integration in their roles and implementation of the required tasks,” he noted.




Lt Col al-Kaabi added that the Watan exercise also aims to enhance close cooperation with the brotherly and friendly forces and to ensure integration of efforts and cooperation to achieve the best security experiences in major sporting events hosted by Qatar.
Al-Jassim said that the organisation of any global event can’t be performed by one party , but rather requires cooperation and joint coordination. “Therefore, Watan exercise simulates the effectiveness of coordination between the authorities to ensure the organization of a successful championship,” he said noting that the campaign includes a set of field and desk exercises to simulate some of the scenarios that may occur during the organisation of the tournament.
“The preparations for the exercise began some time ago , and a set of civilian and military scenarios were prepared based on previous experiences and potential events with the aim of testing readiness and integration of roles to ensure a safe hosting of sporting events hosted by Qatar,” he explained.
Watan exercise includes the tasks and duties of the security operations of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. The exercise will be held in multiple sites in the country, including the competitive facilities and the non-competitive facilities and a number of public and tourist centres. The authorities are keen to conduct the operation with high accuracy and professionalism without compromising the normal life of residents. The outcomes of the exercise will be evaluated to identify the positives to strengthen them and the negatives, if any, will be addressed.