SANAA, 23 June — Saudi Arabia agreed yesterday to lend Yemen SR1.125 billion ($300 million) to finance development projects in the country. The Saudi minister of finance and national economy and Yemen’s planning minister have signed an agreement in this regard.
The agreement came during a meeting of the Saudi-Yemeni Coordination Council, which was chaired, on the Saudi side, by Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation. Prince Sultan, who returned to Jeddah yesterday after a three-day visit to Yemen during which he also held talks with President Ali Abdullah Saleh, said the funds would be used to finance power, road and training projects.
According to a communiqué issued after the Council meeting yesterday, the two sides have assigned the related authorities to study a plan to set up a free-trade zone.
The two countries called for more efforts to strengthen Arab solidarity, and denounced brutal Israeli attacks on unarmed Palestinian civilians. “The two sides stressed that the recent Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire accord will not succeed unless Israel stops its attacks and withdraw its forces from the Palestinian territories,” the communiqué said, and called for total Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Arab land.
The two sides also urged the UN Security Council to take action to protect the Palestinians’ life and property and to save them from the pathetic conditions they live in. They pledged all-out support for the Palestinian intifada.
Saudi-Yemeni ties have witnessed remarkable improvement since the two countries signed a landmark border treaty last June, ending a 60-year-old territorial dispute. President Saleh visited the Kingdom last month to explore ways of boosting bilateral ties.
Prince Sultan said there are about one million Yemeni guest workers in the Kingdom.
“We should agree on positive means to ensure Saudi and Yemeni security and safeguard the rights of the Yemeni workers,” he said, adding that the regulatory measures in this regard would continue. On his talks with Saleh, Prince Sultan said the Yemeni president supports every joint effort by Saudi and Yemeni peoples as well as the governments.
Yemeni Prime Minister Dr. Abdul Qader Bajammal said the two sides had agreed on moves to reschedule Yemen’s foreign debt. Prince Sultan earlier laid the foundation stone for a $100 million hospital project in Sanaa being set up by the Saudi-German Group.
Bajammal said the two sides have signed agreements for cooperation in marine transportation and media. “We will sign more accords in the areas of youth and sports, health and trade soon,” he added.
The communiqué said the two sides had agreed to continue talks on moves to avoid double taxation, promoting joint investments and customs cooperation. The meeting welcomed the formation of Saudi-Yemeni Business Council and hoped that it would boost joint investments in various areas.
The communiqué said the two countries agreed to cooperate in oil and mineral sectors and said the concerned ministers were authorized to make follow-ups in this regard.
