Article

2005-02-23 Arabia

UAE-Saudi tensions emerge over border row, trade links with US

Tensions have emerged between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia over a border row dating back to the 1970s and fresh differences, chiefly over trade links with Washington, Gulf officials say. The strains between the oil-rich neighbors coincide with problems between Riyadh and both Bahrain and Qatar, which are grouped with Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). "The Emiratis raised the (border dispute) with the Saudis shortly after a new leadership took over in Abu Dhabi" last November following the death of UAE founder and president Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan, said a senior Gulf official who requested anonymity. "The Saudis replied that the issue had been settled under an agreement signed by the two countries in the 1970s," the official told AFP.

President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan, who succeeded his father as head of the seven-member federation, "raised the question when he visited Riyadh (in December) on his first trip abroad after his accession to power". But the Saudis referred to the border accord, another Gulf official confirmed. Under the agreement signed on August 21, 1974 in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia dropped its claim to the Buraimi oasis region, while Abu Dhabi relinquished a 25-kilometer-long (15-mile-long) strip of land linking it to Qatar, thus isolating Doha. The UAE also gave up some 80 percent of the resources of the Shaybah oilfield in southeast Saudi Arabia. Shaybah, located in Saudi Arabia's vast Rub al-Khali, or Empty Quarter, desert, has some 15 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and untapped gas reserves of 25 trillion cubic feet. Abu Dhabi has always felt wronged by the accord, which it perceives as having been concluded under duress.

Saudi Arabia had welcomed the departure of British troops from the region in 1971, but it made recognition of the new UAE federation conditional on a settlement of its territorial dispute with Abu Dhabi. Emirati and Saudi officials declined to comment on the issue. But another Gulf official, also on condition of anonymity, told AFP that Saudi Arabia "tried in vain to cool things down with the UAE" during a mid-January visit to Abu Dhabi by Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz. "A plan to build a causeway between the Emirates and Qatar raised tensions up a notch," he said. GCC Secretary General Abdulrahman al-Attiyah mentioned the plan during a summit of the Gulf bloc -- which also groups Kuwait and Oman -- in Manama in December. The plans for this and another causeway between Qatar and Bahrain are not sitting well with Saudi Arabia, which believes they will enable Qatar, with which Riyadh has had tense ties in recent years, to establish direct territorial links with neighbors bypassing the kingdom. "Another bone of contention (between the UAE and Saudi Arabia) is the fact that the Emirates is set to become the second Gulf country after Bahrain to sign a free trade pact with the United States," the same official said. Talks on a free trade deal are due to start between Washington and Abu Dhabi on March 8, to be followed on March 12 by the launching of similar negotiations with Oman, a move likely to further isolate Saudi Arabia in the region. Bahrain's free trade deal with the United States has angered Riyadh, which sees it as hindering GCC economic integration.

Posted by Fred 2005-02-23 00:00:00 AM|| || Front Page|| [10325 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 The UAE is puny. If the House of Terrorists (or Saud) was capable of Muslim brotherhood (ikhwan) they could give up a little of the camel kingdom.

Posted by ITolYouSoLucy 2005-02-23 4:20:36 AM|| 2005-02-23 4:20:36 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 Historically, it's been the Gulf Arabs, with their boats and the accompanying necessity for hard work (catching fish is work, when you're doing more than drowning worms) have been richer and more civilized than the sand Arabs of the interior.

Dilmun was nearly as old as Uruk, and had trade relations with the Harappan civilization of the Indus valley. It was reputed to be the home of Utu-Napishtim, who discovered the secret of immortality. Naturally, having all that gold and those jewels lying around, the sand Arabs came by regularly and despoiled them, sometimes killing all the women and raping the men.

The more things change...

Posted by Fred 2005-02-23 9:04:27 AM|| 2005-02-23 9:04:27 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 Historically, it's been the Gulf Arabs, with their boats and the accompanying necessity for hard work (catching fish is work, when you're doing more than drowning worms) have been richer and more civilized than the sand Arabs of the interior.

Or, fish, and shellfish are edible, sand is not.

Posted by BigEd 2005-02-23 3:35:31 PM|| 2005-02-23 3:35:31 PM|| Front Page Top

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