Saudi-Yemeni barriers
The Saudi-Yemeni barriers were a fortification started by Saudi Arabia in December 2003 along the border with Yemen in order to make access more difficult for arms smugglers from Yemen. The course of the Saudi-Yemeni border (including a 20 km wide neutral zone as grazing land for both sides) was laid down in the Jeddah Agreement.
However, the Shiite Wayla tribe living in Yemen objected to the agreed course of the border and threatened to blow up the border fence. The tribe compared the Saudi fence to the Israeli fence, claiming that the facilities were 5 km on Yemeni territory.
In February 2004, the Saudi government temporarily halted construction work and agreed joint border patrols with Yemen.
In 2009, Saudi Arabia began building an expanded border security system and erected a barbed wire fence along most of the 1,600-kilometer border to fend off the influx of thousands of Shiite rebels and their supporters from Yemen.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Saudis urgently erect new border fence to block 'massive' immigration of Shi'ites ( Memento of the original from December 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , World tribune , December 15, 2009
Web links
- Peter Willems: Border tensions ( Al-Ahram ; English)
- Yotam Feldner: The Saudi Separation Fence ( MEMRI ; English)