Saudis Visiting Yemen Believe Saudi-Yemeni Relations are Getting Better [Archives:2000/28/Law & Diplomacy]

Mohammed Bin Sallam
Yemen Times
Disregarding the winner and the loser, the border treaty is truly a dream come true for peoples of the two countries. It is really one of the greatest historic achievements in the 21st century for the two countries that will pave the road for a new phase of relations between them.
I am a Yemeni who has lived about 50 years of the conflict and who has developed, like many of my contemporaries, contradictory feelings of enmity and caution because of this issue. Both countries have played a substantial role to generate this conflicting feeling inside us. In this context, we feel that we have the right to ask the leaders of the two countries for compensation for all psychological and humanitarian damages we have suffered during the past 66 years.
The psychological reform of the two nations requires great efforts and a long time apart from the means that will be adopted for this purpose. I hope that we still can be heard as citizens and not be considered (as usual) irrelevant as our life span almost come to its fag end.
All in all, we will spend the remaining period of our life looking at the new generations who will live with tolerance in an atmosphere of sincere cooperation, security and prosperity. They will not fear wars of the kind, military, cold or economic, that we suffered during the bygone era.
This new political climate would lead to paying more attention to domestic construction. This is to compensate for purchasing weapons which played a main role in destroying economies of the two countries in the past period.
A good number of Saudi politicians, businessmen and journalists have arrived in Sana’a to attend the ceremony of exchanging the border treaty documents in Sana’a. I took this advantage and met some of them to record their impressions about the event.

“I do not feel strange in Sana’a,” said Ayman Mohammed Habib, Vice chief editor of Okadh newspaper.
He said that Saudi visitors to Yemen would not feel that they were in a different country because most of the daily life pictures of Saudi Arabia were repeated there. “You hardly see a place in Saudi Arabia where there is no trace of Yemenis. Wherever Yemenis travel, they leave marks of their traditions and identity,” he said.
Mr. Ayman has visited Yemen twice before. During every visit, he said, he felt that relationships with Yemen were getting closer.
He felt optimistic about the bilateral cooperation between Yemen and Saudi Arabia after the signing of the border treaty. He continued: “All channels of cooperation between peoples of the two countries are to be initiated again. The Saudi-Yemeni Coordination Committee will revive its activities to extend bridges of cooperation between the two nations.”
Talking about the future of relations between Saudi and Yemen he pointed out that blockage in the two countries’ relations would be gotten over after the signing of the treaty. He described the treaty as a groundbreaking achievement that no other Arab countries had been able to achieve in such a peaceful way.
On the other hand he called upon the Saudi investors, businessmen, economists and politicians to back up Yemen’s efforts for development, stressing the importance of having a strong and self-dependent neighbor. “Yemen has arable lands, manpower, potential raw material, all of which are required to meet the demands of the Saudi market. The people of the two countries are required at this moment to take advantage of the positive atmosphere that their politicians have created to strengthen their cooperation. Investors from the two countries should seriously think of investing in the other country as well,” he concluded.

Endorsing all previous opinions about the strong relations between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, Mr. Sulaiman Turki Al-Osaimy, Managing Editor of Al-Ryadh newspaper who had visited Yemen for three times before this said that he felt as if he was Yemeni from inside.
“We were very impressed about the speeches of HE Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Dr. Abdul Qader Ba Jammal which gave us great hopes concerning the closure of the border file. This will allow greater cooperation which will be backed up by the Saudi-Yemeni Coordination Committee,” he said. In this context, a number of Saudi investors are expected to arrive in Sana’a within the forthcoming 24 hours with a lot of project proposals to be implemented in Yemen.
On the subject of the arrival of Yemeni agricultural products in the Saudi market, he said that it was better than importing them from other countries.
At the same time he said that Yemenis pinned lots of hopes on the treaty to get more facilities from the Saudi land. “Thousands of Yemenis are still working in Saudi Arabia. They enjoy the same privileges as Saudis themselves,” he said.
Mr. Al-Osaimy felt optimistic about the role of the Saudi-Yemeni Coordination Committee as an effective link between people of the two countries. He concluded by hailing the signing of the border treaty as a historic achievement which added to the illustrious achievements of HE king Fahd Ben Abdul Aziz, HE Abdullah Ben Abdul Aziz and HE President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Mansour Othman Al-Zahrani, Managing Editor of Al-Bilad newspaper, although in his first visit to Yemen felt quite at home in this country. “I have got the feeling of coming back to the city of my childhood, Al-Taif which resembles Sana’a in many aspects” he said.
On relations between the two nations, he said contacts between Saudis and Yemenis had not at any point come to a complete halt. “Saudis have Yemeni relatives and Yemenis have Saudi relatives, so there has not been a total breakoff of relations even during the past ten years following the invasion of Kuwait,” he said. We, as media men, have, at this point, to enhance and add impetus to these relations and not do the reverse of it,” he added.
Ibraheem Yahia Al-Zahrani, Managing Editor of Al-Madinah newspaper is visiting Yemen for the second time. He spoke highly about the historic relationships between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, describing the treaty as a confirmation of those deeply rooted relations.
“I took advantage of being in Sana’a and visited some of the streets. It was impressive to feel the people’s happiness with this groundbreaking achievement. Saudi people feel the same,” he said.

Visiting Yemen for the first time, Ala Abdul Rahim Abdul Karim, manager of local and foreign affairs for Al-Nadwah newspaper expressed his amazement at the volume of development in Yemen. “It was contrary to my expectations. It really warmed my heart,” he said.
He repeated what HE. Prince Saud Al-Faisal said on relations between the two countries, in the context of exchanging documents of the treaty: “We have had strong relations with Yemen even before the GCC was established.””The settlement of the border dispute was no more than a political issue between the two neighborly countries,” he said. “As for relations between people of the two countries themselves, they are stronger and more solid. They are going to be even stronger by virtue of the economic integration between Yemen and Saudi Arabia,” he added.
He eventually expected more Saudi investors and businessmen to invest in Yemen saying that there was nothing to fear or worry about. “We, journalists, have to sincerity encourage that,” he concluded.

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