Located on the world's third-largest natural gas and oil reserves, Qatar may operate the submarine. Doha has taken a new step that will be effective in changing the balances in the Gulf region. A new memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Italian defence giant Fincantieri covers the “supply of cutting-edge naval vessels and submarines”. The Qatari submarines may be part of a much larger 5 billion Euro deal with Italy which was agreed in 2017. Currently, Iran is the only submarine operator in the Arabian Gulf. Two of Qatar's neighbours, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, both have stated needs to acquire submarines. Qatar has complicated relations with these countries so that the submarine acquisition could be seen, at least in part, as a response to these moves.