Not everything in that region of the world is sand and dust.
The geological formation is called The Neogene Formation. At one time the entire region, including Pakistan and Iran was where hikers would go to see species of animals found nowhere else in the world. But, that all ended when the Iraq war broke out. As a matter of fact the three Americans taken captive in Iran were there for the exact reason. They were hiking and didn't realize they had crossed the Iranian border.
The Anbar province in Iraq had a rough time finding water, but, Saudi Arabia stepped in and found the aquifer and established a water supply.
The basin stretches (click here) across three countries and comprises three aquiferous formations, known as Dibdibba, Lower Fars and Ghar Formations in Iraq and Kuwait, and Hofuf, Dam and Hadrukh Formations in Saudi Arabia. Groundwater has traditionally been abstracted mainly from the Upper Dibdibba Formation in southern Iraq and Kuwait or the Lower Hadrukh Formation in Saudi Arabia, which are mainly sands and gravels of continental origin. In recent years, abstraction of groundwater from these aquifers seems to be limited by two main factors: dewatering of the Dibdibba Formation, which has become largely unsaturated in several areas, and inversion of downward groundwater flow from the Neogene to the Paleogene Formations in heavy abstraction areas....
There is also an aquifer shared between Turkey and Syria.
The Jezira Tertiary Limestone Aquifer System (JTLAS) (click here) comprises two Paleogene Formations: an Eocene (main aquifer) and a Lower Oligocene Formation. It extends from the Jezira Plain on Syria’s northern border (Upper Jezira area) into the south-eastern Anatolian Highlands in Turkey.
Large volumes of groundwater flow from recharge areas in the highlands to groundwater discharge areas along the Syrian border, where many springs, most importantly the Ras al Ain and Ain al Arous Springs, discharge from the aquifer system. Until approximately 2000, these springs discharged a total volume of more than 1,200 MCM and formed the principal source of surface flow in the Balikh and Khabour Rivers, which are the main tributaries of the Euphrates River in Syria....
These are at least two aquifers where Syria shares it's location and/or has a relationship with the bordering country to ask for an aqueduct system or an underground pipeline of which will run only water. It is a matter of making simple wells to begin with, but, then perfecting it on a much later scale to relieve the drought in Syria and facilitate the return of people to the land.
The only complication in having this occur is Daesh.
