Saudi Arabia–United Arab Emirates border
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The Saudi Arabia–United Arab Emirates border is 457 km (284 mi) in length and runs from the
Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...
coast in the west to the tripoint with
Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of ...
in the east. The governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates signed the Treaty of Jeddah in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on 21 August 1974 between
Faisal of Saudi Arabia Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ( ar, فيصل بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود ''Fayṣal ibn ʿAbd al ʿAzīz Āl Suʿūd'', Najdi Arabic pronunciation: ; 14 April 1906 – 25 March 1975) was a Saudi Arabian statesman and diplomat who was ...
and Sheikh
Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan ( ar, زَايِد بِن سُلْطَان آل نَهْيَان, Zāyed bin Sulṭān Āl Nahyān; 6 May 1918 – 2 November 2004) was an Emirati politician, statesman, and philanthropist who served as ...
apparently ending a long-running boundary dispute, but according to the UAE the dispute has not been settled due to discrepancies between the oral agreement before the treaty’s signing and the final text of the treaty itself. According to the UAE, the government did not notice this discrepancy until 1975 as a result of the absence of lawyers, technicians, and geographers on its negotiation team. The UAE has attempted to bring Saudi Arabia back to the negotiating table ever since. The provisions of the 1974 treaty were not publicly disclosed until 1995, when it was lodged with the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
. However, the United Arab Emirates never ratified the agreement.


Description

The border consists of four straight lines: the first begins in the west on the coast at the Sumayrah Gulf just west of the UAE's Ras Khumays (Ghumais) peninsula, proceeding southwards for 26 km (16 mi); the second is orientated NW-SE and runs for 166 km (103 mi); the third is orientated NW-SE and runs for 265 km (164 mi); and the fourth is orientated SW-NE and runs for 12 km (7 mi) up to the Omani tripoint. The border lies entirely within the desert, occasionally cutting across salt-flats such as the Sabkhat Matti.


History

Historically there was no clearly defined boundary in this part of the Arabian peninsula. During the 19th century Britain had signed a number of protectorate treaties with seven emirates on what was then known as the 'Pirate Coast', giving rise to the so-called
Trucial States The Trucial States ( '), also known as the Trucial Coast ( '), the Trucial Sheikhdoms ( '), Trucial Arabia or Trucial Oman, was the name the British government gave to a group of tribal confederations in southeastern Arabia whose leaders had s ...
. The interior of Arabia consisted of loosely organised Arab groupings, occasionally forming emirates, most prominent of which was the Emirate of Nejd and Hasa ruled by the al-Saud family. Madawi Al-Rasheed. ''A History of Saudi Arabia''. Cambridge, England, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. 40. Britain and the Ottoman Empire theoretically divided their realms of influence in Arabia via the so-called '
Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...
' and ' Violet lines' in 1913-14. During the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
an
Arab Revolt The Arab Revolt ( ar, الثورة العربية, ) or the Great Arab Revolt ( ar, الثورة العربية الكبرى, ) was a military uprising of Arab forces against the Ottoman Empire in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. On ...
, supported by Britain, succeeded in removing the Ottomans from much of the Middle East; in the period following this Ibn Saud managed to expand his kingdom considerably, eventually proclaiming the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. Ibn Saud refused to recognise the Anglo-Ottoman lines and lay claim to large parts of the eastern Arabian hinterland (the so-called ‘Hamza line’). On 25 November 1935 British officials met with Ibn Saud in an attempt to finalise a frontier between the new kingdom and its coastal protectorates, including the Trucial States. The conference proved abortive however and the issue remained unresolved.


Buraimi dispute

In 1949, Saudi Arabia under the rule of Ibn Saud and Saudi Aramco had made incursions to the Western Region of the
Emirate of Abu Dhabi The Emirate of Abu Dhabi (, , or ; ar, إِمَارَةْ أَبُوظَبِي , ) is one of seven emirates that constitute the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is by far the largest emirate, accounting for 87% of the nation's total land area o ...
, due to the prospect of getting oil. Ibn Saud was also interested in ruling the area of Al Ain and Al Buraimi, located in the Eastern Region of Abu Dhabi on its border with
Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of ...
. This led to the
Buraimi Dispute The Buraimi dispute or Buraimi war () was a series of covert attempts by Saudi Arabia to influence the loyalties of tribes and communities in and around the oil-rich Buraimi oasis in the 1940s and 1950s, which culminated in an armed conflict bet ...
. On 31 August 1952, a group of some 80 Saudi Arabian guards, 40 of whom were armed, led by the Saudi
Emir Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cer ...
of
Ras Tanura Ras Tanura ( ar, رأس تنورة, Ra's Tannūrah, lit=cape oven, cape brazier, presumably due to the unusual heat prevalent at the cape that projects into the sea) is a city in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia located on a peninsula extend ...
, Turki bin Abdullah Al Otaishan, crossed Abu Dhabi territory and occupied
Hamasa Hamasa ( ar, حَمَاسَة, Ḥamāsah) is an area in the Buraimi area in Oman on the Oman–United Arab Emirates border. Hamasa, for the period of 200 years, was the capital of the Buraimi district. History Being part of the region of Tawa ...
, one of three Omani villages in the oasis, claiming it as part of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. On 30 July 1954, it was agreed to refer the dispute to an international arbitration tribunal. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia embarked on a campaign of bribery to obtain declarations of tribal loyalty on which its case was to be based. This campaign even extended to
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan ( ar, زَايِد بِن سُلْطَان آل نَهْيَان, Zāyed bin Sulṭān Āl Nahyān; 6 May 1918 – 2 November 2004) was an Emirati politician, statesman, and philanthropist who served as ...
, brother of Sheikh Shakhbut, the Ruler of Abu Dhabi and at that time the ''wali'' of Al Ain. Zayed was approached by the Saudis, first with an offer of 50% of any oil revenues from the area, then a new car and 40,000 Rupees. A third approach offered Zayed 400 million Rupees and finally, he was informed that the Saudi representative, Abdullah Al Qurayshi, wished to present him with three pistols. In 1955 arbitration proceedings began in Geneva only to collapse when the British arbitrator,
Sir Reader Bullard Sir Reader William Bullard (5 December 1885 – 24 May 1976) was a British diplomat and author. Education Reader Bullard was born in Walthamstow, the son of Charles, a dock labourer, and Mary Bullard. He was educated at the Monoux School th ...
, objected to Saudi Arabian attempts to influence the tribunal and withdrew – one of the two judges to resign, the other being the Belgian President. Given these breaches of the agreement, the British government decided to unilaterally abrogate the Standstill Agreement and take the oasis on 25 October 1955. On 25 October, the
Trucial Oman Levies The Trucial Oman Scouts was a paramilitary force that the British raised in 1951 as the Trucial Oman Levies, to serve in the Trucial States. In 1956, the Levies were renamed the Trucial Oman Scouts. In 1971, upon the formation of the United Arab ...
quickly took the oasis and captured all fifteen of the Saudi contingent under the Saudi Emir Bin Nami, who was shot and lightly wounded. The Saudi force was flown out on an RAF
Valetta Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an administrative unit and capital of Malta. Located on the main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, its population within administrative limits in 2014 was ...
, which took them to Sharjah and then on to Saudi Arabia by sea. Most of the fighting took place after the surrender of the Saudis, with the Bedouin force of some 200 men putting up a spirited resistance to the Levies. After this incident Britain stated that it would unilaterally use a slightly modified version of the 1935 'Riyadh line' as the border henceforth.


Independence of the United Arab Emirates

After the declaration of independence of the United Arab Emirates in 1971, Saudi Arabia withheld the recognition of the country and Sheikh
Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan ( ar, زَايِد بِن سُلْطَان آل نَهْيَان, Zāyed bin Sulṭān Āl Nahyān; 6 May 1918 – 2 November 2004) was an Emirati politician, statesman, and philanthropist who served as ...
as its President on the basis of territorial disputes with the
Emirate of Abu Dhabi The Emirate of Abu Dhabi (, , or ; ar, إِمَارَةْ أَبُوظَبِي , ) is one of seven emirates that constitute the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is by far the largest emirate, accounting for 87% of the nation's total land area o ...
and continued to deal with the emirates as individual emirates bypassing the federal union. In 1974, King Faisal was asked by Sheikh Zayed that the UAE was in dire need of cooperation from Saudi Arabia in its recognition of the country and was asked to open the negotiations over the border issue. King Faisal used the tactic of non-recognition as a leverage against the Emirate of Abu Dhabi to make it reach a settlement quickly. King Faisal was already associated with the issue before 1974 as the minister of foreign affairs during the reign of his father
King Abdulaziz Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud ( ar, عبد العزيز بن عبد الرحمن آل سعود, ʿAbd al ʿAzīz bin ʿAbd ar Raḥman Āl Suʿūd; 15 January 1875Ibn Saud's birth year has been a source of debate. It is generally accepted ...
. He has witnessed the failure of many meetings at which British officials sometimes represented Abu Dhabi. He felt the handling of the
Buraimi dispute The Buraimi dispute or Buraimi war () was a series of covert attempts by Saudi Arabia to influence the loyalties of tribes and communities in and around the oil-rich Buraimi oasis in the 1940s and 1950s, which culminated in an armed conflict bet ...
in which Saudi troops were defeated and forcibly removed was a great insult to the Kingdom and a blow to be avenged. King Faisal told the UAE delegation which visited him in
Taif Taif ( ar, , translit=aṭ-Ṭāʾif, lit=The circulated or encircled, ) is a city and governorate in the Makkan Region of Saudi Arabia. Located at an elevation of in the slopes of the Hijaz Mountains, which themselves are part of the Sarat M ...
in July 1972 that Saudi Arabia had been humiliated in Buraimi and that it would have to retrieve its rights, vowing that it would not abandon property inherited from fathers and grandfathers. Sheikh Zayed was more eager for a settlement but Saudi Arabia's demand was unrealistic as it claimed the annexation of extensive lands in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi some of which contained a number of oil fields. On 21 August 1974 an agreement was settled between Sheikh Zayed and King Faisal on the demarcation of the frontiers between Emirate of Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia immediately declared recognition of the United Arab Emirates, sent its ambassador, and promoted its liaison office in Dubai into a consulate. The step strengthened the United Arab Emirate's position as a union and consolidated Sheikh Zayed's position as President.


Border dispute

In 1976, Qatar and UAE agreed to establish a highway to link each other, however this was impeded by Saudi Arabia who stated that the construction company was operating on Saudi territory. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia hired a survey team to examine the possibility of building a port at Ras Ghumais located in UAE territory and awarding a contract to a Saudi-Irish company, arguing that the UAE borders were finalized and recognized in 1976 when
King Khalid Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ( ar, خالد بن عبد العزيز آل سعود ''Khalid ibn ʿAbd al ʿAzīz Āl Suʿūd'' ; 13 February 1913 13 June 1982) was a Saudi Arabian statesman and politician who served as King and Prime Minister of ...
sealed the agreement. The Saudis hence succeeded in gaining 20 miles east of Ras Ghumais in another Treaty in 1977 and gave Sheikh Zayed a cheque for $34.5 million. However, this treaty remained unrecognized internationally. According to author
Anthony Cordesman Anthony H. Cordesman (born August 1, 1939) holds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and is a national security analyst on a number of global conflicts. Career He earned his B.A. ...
, "the Saudi government forced Abu Dhabi to move its border 20 miles further east on the Gulf coast” From 1974 until 1980 there was no physical Saudi checkpoints between
Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...
and UAE, citizens of both countries moved freely back and forth without interference from the Saudi government until after 1990s. The Saudis did not construct the actual road until after 1990. In June 1990 the direct land road connecting UAE and Qatar was closed for the first time and the Saudis opened a new road connecting Saudi territory with UAE through Al Sila and closed the old road connecting Abu Dhabi to the Qatari border. According to UAE military sources, the Saudi government paid money to Saudi tribes to relocate near Khor Al Udaid and claimed they had been living there for a long time as well as built various military infrastructure near the inlet. In 2004, Emirati under secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Rashid Al Nuaimi told US ambassador Marcelle M. Wahba that the UAE signed the treaty in 1974 was a case of " force majeure". In 2004, the UAE publicly raised the question of the boundary with Saudi Arabia and Sheikh
Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan ( ar,  خليفة بن زايد بن سلطان آل نهيان‎; 7 September 1948 – 13 May 2022) was the second president of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Abu Dhabi, serving from ...
, President of the UAE, asked Saudi Arabia for amendments. Saudi Arabia responded that the treaty has been closed in 1974, except for Article 5 which talks about delineating maritime boundaries. UAE government publicly announced the dissatisfaction to allow changes to the Articles of the Jeddah Treaty. The public announcement with the dissatisfaction came a month after UAE's previous president Sheikh Zayed passed away, indicating that the UAE was not satisfied with the way the boundary issue was handled. Sheikh Khalifa raised the issue when he visited
Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of th ...
in December 2004, however no solution occurred. In 2005, there were concerns that the border dispute might flare up again. In 2005, Sheikh Khalifa visited Qatar and a causeway project intended to link
Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the count ...
to Abu Dhabi was announced, frustrating Saudi Arabia and causing them to protest that this causeway was passing through Saudi waters even though the maritime boundaries between the two countries was not delineated. Emirati undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated "We don't want to be separated from the Qataris by a slice of Saudi waters." implying that the causeway project was the only hope for Abu Dhabi to be connected to Qatar. In 2004, UAE and Qatar also jointly signed an agreement for the
Dolphin Gas Project The Dolphin Gas Project is the natural gas project of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman. It is the Gulf Cooperation Council's first cross-border refined gas transmission project and the largest energy-related venture ever undertaken in the r ...
, which involves Qatar supplying gas to the UAE and
Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of ...
. In July 2006 the Saudi government protested the project, arguing that the pipeline passed through Saudi Arabia’s claimed territorial waters. The UAE publicly reopened the dispute in 2006, claiming some lost territory.


Treaty of Jeddah

The Jeddah Agreement granted Saudi Arabia a corridor eastwards from
Khawr al Udayd Khawr al Udayd, ( ar, خور العديد; also spelled Khor al Adaid and Khor al-‘Udeid) is a settlement and inlet of the Persian Gulf located in Al Wakrah Municipality in southeast Qatar, on the border with Saudi Arabia. It is known to loca ...
, thus giving the Saudis an outlet to the
Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...
on the eastern side of
Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...
. In return, the UAE was to keep six villages in the area of
Al-Buraimi Al-Buraimi ( ar, ٱلْبُرَيْمِي, Al-Buraymī) is an oasis city and a wilayah (province) in northern Oman, on the border between Oman and the United Arab Emirates. It is the capital of the Al Buraimi Governorate. An adjacent city on the U ...
, including al-Ain, and most of al-Zafra desert. Al-Ain/Al-Buraimi oasis region consists of nine oases/villages, seven of which - Al Ain, Al Jaheli, Al Qattarah, Al Muwaiji, Al Hill, Al Masudi, and Al Muhtaredh are today under Abu Dhabi’s control, while the remaining three, namely Hamasa, Sa'ara and Buraimi, today belong to the Sultanate of Oman. Article 3 of the agreement stated that "all hydrocarbons in the
Shaybah Shaybah, also called as Zararah, is a settlement dominated by a major crude oil production oil site, the Shaybah oil field, in Saudi Arabia, located approximately from the northern edge of the Rub' Al-Khali ("Empty Quarter") desert. It is about ...
-Zarrara field shall be considered as belonging to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" and provided for exploration and development of the whole field by Saudi Arabia. Article 4 stipulated that Saudi Arabia and the UAE “each undertake to refrain from engaging in and from permitting the exploitation of hydro-carbons in that part of its territory to which the hydrocarbon fields primarily located in the territory of the other state extend."


Disputed Articles

In 1992, the UAE wished to renegotiate the status of the treaty, specially the 20 percent of Zararah that was located in Abu Dhabi’s territory. Saudi Arabia published the contents of the treaty in 1995 publicly for the first time to make it clear that under Article 3 of the treaty, the Shaybah field belonged to Saudi Arabia and there will be no joint development of the oilfield. The UAE oil minister was the only GCC oil minister who did not attend the inauguration of the Shaybah oilfield in March 1999 as a way to indicate the UAE's long standing dissatisfaction with Jeddah Treaty Articles. According to a Saudi source, Sheikh
Mohammed bin Zayed Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan ( ar, مُحَمّد بِن زَايد آل نَهيَان, Moḥamed bin Zāyed Āl Nahyān; born 11 March 1961), colloquially known by his initials as MBZ, is the third president of the United Arab Emirates ...
made more than two visits to Saudi Arabia in March and April 2011 with the intention of reaching a settlement regarding the 20 percent of Zararah oilfield that was located in Abu Dhabi territory. On 15 August 2011, an anonymous UAE diplomat stated that the UAE wanted changes to the treaty, mainly to Article 3 that would make changes to allow for the oil sharing between Zararah/Shaybah oil field as Sheikh Zayed had obviously believed in August 1974 that the UAE and Saudi Arabia were agreeing to share the oil, but that this had not been included in the provisions of the Treaty and hence its within UAE's rights to request an amendment to the Treaty. The UAE also argued against Article 5 of the treaty, which stated that “both parties shall as soon as possible delimit the offshore boundaries between the territory of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the territory of the United Arab Emirates.” According to the UAE, the article cannot be settled due to conflicting parts with the 1969 territorial agreement between Abu Dhabi and Qatar, as well as with the UAE-Qatar Dolphin Pipeline agreement of 2004. Lastly, the UAE directly disagreed with Article 6 of the treaty, which stipulated that an international company would be required to prepare an official map to reflect the current boundaries between the two countries. The UAE continued to use the older version of the map which did not conform the Treaty of Jeddah, showing Khor al Udaid and the location of the Zararah oilfield as UAE territory as far till 2009. This caused a problem with UAE citizens entering Saudi Arabia in August 2009 who were using their ID cards as the card showed the original map and Emirati citizens who tried to enter Saudi Arabia with their ID cards were turned back at the border. According to
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP or TWI, also known simply as The Washington Institute) is a pro-Israel American think tank based in Washington, D.C., focused on the foreign policy of the United States in the Near East. WI ...
, it might be argued that the 1974 agreement is of questionable validity in terms of
international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...
. It has been neither published nor ratified by the UAE
Federal National Council The Federal National Council (FNC) ( ar, المجلس الوطني الإتحادي, ''al-Majlis al-Watani al-Ittihadi'') of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is an advisory quasi-parliamentary body in the UAE. The FNC consists of 40 members. Twen ...
, a crucial step to make the agreement binding on the parties. Qatar, which suddenly discovered it no longer had a land border with the UAE, was not even a party to the negotiations.


Border Crossings

*
Ghuwaifat Ghuwaifat ( ar, ٱلْغُوَيْفَات) is a small town in the far west of the emirate of Abu Dhabi. The place forms a border crossing to Saudi Arabia on the transit road to Qatar. Ghuwaifat belongs to the urban area of Sila, which extends i ...
-Batha


See also

* Saudi Arabia-United Arab Emirates relations


References


External links


Text of the treaty in Arabic, English, and FrenchArabian Boundary disputesMorton, Michael Quentin (2013), ''Buraimi: The Struggle for Power, Influence and Oil in Arabia''), IB Tauris
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saudi Arabia - United Arab Emirates Border Dispute Borders of Saudi Arabia Borders of the United Arab Emirates International borders Qatar–United Arab Emirates border Territorial disputes of Saudi Arabia Territorial disputes of the United Arab Emirates