JEDDAH, 16 June 2005 — Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are in total agreement on the border issue, Interior Minister Prince Naif said yesterday after talks with UAE President Sheikh Khalifa ibn Zayed and other top Emirati officials.
“We are in agreement (on the issue) and there are no differences. Only certain organizational matters need to be settled,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the prince as telling reporters in Riyadh on his return from Abu Dhabi.
“The visit to the UAE was successful by all standards. I met President Sheikh Khalifa, Crown Prince Sheikh Muhammad ibn Zayed and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamdan ibn Zayed, who is in charge of the border affairs. The meetings were very friendly and our views were identical on all the issues we discussed,” he said.
Asked when the two countries would sign the final border pact, Prince Naif said: “There is already an agreement signed in 1974. What is remaining is minor issues to make it complete,” he said, adding that Sheikh Hamdan would soon visit Riyadh for talks on this issue.
Prince Naif criticized Al-Hayat Arabic daily for publishing a fabricated report on the Saudi-UAE border issue. “There is no truth at all in the report,” he said and urged the media to contact authentic sources for reports.
