There are many techniques ...

There are many techniques that have been published dealing with desert reclamation technologies and also best practices for soil amendments, binding up chlorides, innovative drip irrigation, morning mist harvesting, using white ground cover materials (not black) to retard evaporation, use of permeable shade cover, the list of good practices is extensive however, there are very few that deal with "cultural prohibitions" that prevent enlightened environmentalists from using some of these practices as some of them are widely accepted, e.g. use of stabilized sewage sludge that came from pig farms, and human feces. If there is a willingness reclamation can happen. Sludge from New York City gets pelletized and is shipped by rail to Florida where it is an amendment to citrus crops grow in sandy soil. You cannot tell Islamic countries that something worked in Israel as that almost certainly means it will not be considered no matter how viable an alternative to expanding agricultural lands into what is desert. With China increasingly willing to invest in desert reclamation their economic prowess might be enough to overcome cultural prohibitions.