‘UAE firm on sovereignty over waters of Al Adeed’

The UAE stood firmly to its ground during the bilateral talks with high level Saudi delegation in Abu Dhabi earlier this month, media reports said.

The media reports are seen in the context of another report that emanated from Saudi Arabia and got circulated in the Gulf region in the past two days, that said Saudi Arabia has protested to Qatar and UAE over plans to build a causeway linking the two AGCC states. The protest was on the ground that the causeway would pass through Saudi territorial waters, the report said.

AGCC Secretary-General Abdulrahman Al Attiyah had made a mention of the causeway plan during a summit of the AGCC countries in Manama in December last. Reports then were that Saudi Arabia was unhappy that this causeway and another proposed between Qatar and Bahrain were planned by bypassing the kingdom.

UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Shaikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan had said 10 days ago that talks on the border issues between UAE and Saudi Arabia will be completed during a visit that he would undertake to Saudi Arabia soon, at the invitation of the Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

The President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, had received a letter from the Saudi Crown Prince and Commander of the National Guard Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, in connection with the common boundaries between the two countries. The letter was delivered to the president by Prince Naif during his recent visit here. A report the other day had said the UAE wanted to make vital changes in the portion of the 1974 Border Agreement which deals with the territorial waters of the Khour Al Adeed, where the UAE relinquished to Saudi Arabia a 25-kilometre coastal area separating Abu Dhabi and Qatar which is isolated and rounded by Saudi Arabian land.

The UAE also relinquished in the agreement 80 per cent of the giant Al Sheba oil field, which is referred to by the UAE side as Zararah. Oil reserve in this field is estimated at around 15 billion barrels in addition to about 650 million cubic metres of gas reserve, the report said.

The reports here quoted a high-level UAE source as saying the Saudi side tabled during the meeting the issue of establishing a Saudi Arabian sea route via Al Adeed and the sinking of oil wells in its shallow waters but the UAE side rejected the proposal, saying these were not practical because drilling of oil in such a shallow area would suck-out UAE’s oil. All UAE oil wells are located in the area.

The source was quoted as saying that all agreements signed between the two countries do not give Saudi Arabia any sovereignty over the area’s territorial waters or oil wells. The source, however, said the agreements stated the Saudis’ sovereignty over the land and joint UAE-Saudi sovereignty over the territorial waters of the area.

The reports said the Saudi side interprets the “joint sovereignty over the territorial waters” as giving the kingdom the right to establish sea navigation route to the international waters via Al Adeed. “But the UAE interpretation is totally different,” the source said, adding that any proposal that trespasses on the UAE’s sovereignty over its waters and islands is “unacceptable and non-negotiable.”

Sources close to the negotiation table said the Saudi side proposed an increase in the UAE’s share of Al Sheba oil field in exchange for accepting the Saudi proposal for a sea route through Al Adeed. “The UAE side declined the proposal and insisted on full sovereignty over the territorial waters of the area”, the report said.

The report said the UAE-Saudi Arabia border issue came at a time when the UAE and Qatar announced their plan to jointly build a bridge on the sea to link the two countries, similar to the one linking Saudi Arabia with Bahrain.

A Gulf source was quoted in the report as saying Saudi Arabia, for over 35 years, remained quiet on this border dispute until announcement on the building of the UAE-Qatar Bridge was made. The source added that the kingdom does not want any land contact between the UAE and Qatar.

The source pointed out that Saudi Arabia was also totally against the building of the bridge that Qatar and Bahrain are currently planning to build, to link their two countries together. “This is because Riyadh fears this kind of bridges would enhance the affinity and rapprochement between the small member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council”.

The report also said that speculations are making the rounds over possible revival of the Nine-member Union project, involving the UAE (seven members) Qatar and Bahrain, in order to form a stronger and more homogenous economic and political bloc among the three countries. This, it said, is in view of the “fading of the Gulf Cooperation Council” mechanism and its failure to achieve the Gulf unity aspirations of the people of the region.

“Relations among the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain are currently witnessing improvement, making the kingdom to see how their relations develop within the Gulf environment. This follows the distancing of Bahrain and UAE from the kingdom in recent times, while Oman is closer to the new Gulf bloc of the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar. As for Kuwait, it is now keeping a close eye on the developments before it decides where to align itself”, the report said.