President Saleh denies Saudi Arabia's occupation of a mountain in Yemen

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Wednesday denied reports saying that the Saudi forces occupied a strategic mountain in the Yemeni territories.

In an interview with the London-based al- Quds al-Arabi daily, the Yemeni president said, "This is not true. This news was published in a party newspaper belonging to an opposition party. Those do not realize that publishing incorrect news will be damaging to national interests."

He said that, "The whole story was that a slight confrontation took place between on foot patrols of the border guards of the two countries near Jahfan mountain." He denied what was published by the Yemeni al-Wahdawi daily, mouthpiece of the opposition Nasserite People's Unionist Organization at the end of January in which it stressed that the Saudi forces occupied Jahfan mountain in Hajjah province, northwestern Yemen.

Since 1995, Riyadh and Sanaa have been making talks on joint border demarcation over joint borders of 2,500 km length.