MUKALLA, YEMEN - Yemen and its oil-rich neighbour Saudi Arabia are due to sign this week the final maps marking their joint borders after land demarcation was completed, Yemeni officials said Monday.
The officials said the maps would be signed during meetings of the Yemeni Saudi Higher Coordination Council (YSHCC), which is scheduled to begin in the south-eastern Yemeni city of Mukalla on Wednesday.
Demarcation of the joint Yemeni-Saudi 1,845-kilometre border was completed in 2004 after 824 markers were put in place. Last April, a German company delivered to the two states the final maps marking the border line based on a 2000 border treaty that ended a long-standing dispute.
The treaty ended a 66-year-old dispute between Saudi Arabia and Yemen over the unmarked borders, including handing over territory to each other as the border demarcation was completed.
On May 16, Saudi Arabia handed over to Yemen the last of 13 border outposts designated as Yemeni territory by the border treaty.
The two-day meetings of the YSHCC are to be co-chaired by the Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz and Yemeni Prime Minister Abdul-Qader Ba-Jammal.
The meetings would also discuss several issues including economic ties, efforts to fight terrorism and the combat against cross-border drug and arms smuggling and infiltration of terrorists, Yemeni official said.
Large quantities of arms and explosives are smuggled to Saudi territories through the porous border from Yemen every year. (DPA), 29 May 2006
