Saudi Yemen barrier

Saudi Arabia began in December 2003 to construct a separation barrier along its border with Yemen in an attempt to separate the residents along both sides of the border. The border was set in the 2000 Jeddah border treaty, which included a 20 kilometer-wide neutral zone as a strip of grazing land permitted to both sides.

The Shi'ite Wayilah tribe living in Yemen objects to the location of the border as set in the treaty. The tribe owns approximately 200 military vehicles and thousands of rifles and has waged private wars in its own interest in the recent past. When Saudi Arabia began to build the separation fence, the Wayilah tribe announced that if the Saudis did not stop the construction and remove all trace of it from the area, they would "blow everything up," including the Jeddah treaty. The tribe compared the Saudi fence to Israel's separation fence, and claimed that it was being built five kilometers over the border into Yemenite territory. A communiqué published by the Wayilah tribe stated:

We are renewing our objection to the agreements that created a barrier between us and our lands and our property. Similarly, we reject the principle of compensation or the division of land or of the tribe… Every new border route will be null and void, and has nothing to do with the tribal border route recognized by the Wayilah and Yam tribes…. (the Yam tribe is located in Saudi Arabia.)

In February 2004 the Saudi government promised to halt construction of the barrier; it is not clear if this halt is permanent.

See also

Separation barrier

External links

The Saudi Separation Fence (http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA16204)

Saudi Arabia Enrages Yemen with Fence (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=490024)

de:Saudisch-Jemenitische_Sperranlagen

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