Saudi, Yemeni military officials discuss border security arrangements

RIYADH (AFP) Mar 01, 2004
Saudi and Yemeni military officials held talks on Monday about the implementation of security arrangements along the porous border between the two countries, sources in the Yemeni team said.

The meeting, in the Saudi southern province of Najran close to the frontier, was co-chaired by Saudi armed forces Chief of Staff Saleh al-Muhaya and his Yemeni counterpart Mohammad al-Kassemi.

The discussions, attended by military and security officials from both countries, centered on "security arrangements designed to tighten control of the border, including conducting joint patrols and setting up joint watch towers," an official in the Yemeni delegation told AFP, requesting anonymity.

The implementation of shared security measures was agreed during a visit by Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to Riyadh two weeks ago which Sanaa said settled a row over a barrier Saudi Arabia had been building on their common border.

A joint statement issued at the end of Saleh's visit said the two sides had agreed on a series of measures to tighten border controls, without mentioning the barrier.

Sanaa considered the barrier an infringement of a June 2000 agreement that ended a decades-long territorial dispute between the two Arab neighbors.

The statement said Riyadh and Sanaa agreed to "run joint border patrols, put up security checkpoints, determine the points where shepherds can pass and increase security arrangements on sections of the border where smuggling and infiltration is most likely to occur."

A Saudi official later told AFP that Riyadh decided to halt construction of the barrier after Sanaa acquiesced to the joint border patrols.

Saudi authorities fear that many of the Islamist radicals blamed for a string of suicide bombings in Riyadh which killed 52 people last year use the border with Yemen to slip in and out, and to smuggle arms and explosives into the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia frequently announces arrests and arms seizures along the 1,800-kilometer (1,100-mile) frontier.

Sanaa, under US pressure since the September 11, 2001 suicide hijackings, has also been hunting suspected sympathizers of the Al-Qaeda terror network of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, whose wealthy family traces its roots back to Yemen.

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