Sanaa accusation of Saudi Arabia ceding its lands

Yemen's president said in June that points of agreement between Yemen and Saudi Arabia cover so far two thirds of the Yemeni - Saudi border. Yet there were still two points of dispute.

According to the Taif accord which was renewed for the first time in 1995, Yemen gives up its demands for the restoration of the provinces of Aseer, Najran and Jeizan, which had been given to Saudi Arabia in 1934. But there are still lands which are still not demarcated, especially those separating Saudi Arabia and southern Yemen.

On Thursday, the Yemeni government officially accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out acts of aggression and seizing Yemeni territories. A Yemeni government spokesman's accusations came in retaliation to the "Objection memorandum" submitted by Saudi Arabia to the Arab League.

The Saudi memorandum opposed the border agreement reached between Yemen and Oman in October 1992. It noted that Riyadh believes that the agreement prohibits Saudi Arabia from obtaining a direct site on the sea. By the end of June, the Saudi-Yemeni joint committee in charge of border demarcation between the two countries had approved a decision to reactivate the meetings of the two committees in charge of land and marine border demarcation between the two countries. The meetings had been suspended for several months.