Eight Yemeni injured in Saudi border clash
Saudi Arabia-Yemen, Politics, 7/3/1997

Eight Yemeni soldiers were wounded this week in a clash with Saudi border police, a Yemeni security official disclosed on July 1, as the Saudi Arabian interior minister wound up a two-day visit seeking to settle the two countries¹ 65 year old frontier dispute.

Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, who arrived in the Yemeni capital on June 30, held talks with his Yemeni counterpart, Hussein Arab, and other senior officials in an attempt to revive stalled border negotiations.

Large parts of the 2,000 km frontier remain undefined, and the dispute has often flared into armed confrontation.

In the latest clash, which occurred on June 28, Saudi border police fired automatic weapons at Yemeni soldiers near the Rub Al Khali according to the Yemeni security official.

He said some of the wounded Yemenis were in serious conditoin in Sanaa's military hospital.

He added that the Yemenis fired back, but that it was not known whether there were Saudi casualties.

The official also said there were clashes this week between Yemeni and Saudi Arabian forces on a number of tiny disputed islands in the Red Sea.

Saudi Arabia's claim to parts of the Rub-al-Khali, a vast desert region believed to be rich in oil, is especially contested by Yemen.

Sanaa has repeatedly accused Saudi Arabia of building roads and constructing military posts in its territory.

Yemen has been frustrated by the lack of progress in border talks and has said it will consider seeking international arbitration.

"The gulf between Sanaa and Riyadh has narrowed considerably, and the two countries will reach a final solution within the coming weeks,² Prince Nayef said before leaving Sanaa.

He said the joint committees formed by the two countries, the largest on the Arabian peninsula, were studying in the issue.

Saudi Arabia and Yemen signed an agreement in 1995 to settle the dispute by granting the provinces of Najran, Assir, and Jizan to Saudi Arabia and setting up a joint committee to fix their border. But the committee has made little headway.

Prince Nayef also said he discussed ways to revive a May 1996 security accord between the two states.

The Saudi minister met Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh to deliver a message from King Fahd on the border dispute on June 30, the official news agency Saba said.

It said the message underlined "The determination of the Saudi kingdom to find a definitive and brotherly solution to the border question in a satisfactory manner.²

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