The UAE and Saudi Arabia

Book excerpt: Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been engaged in a long-standing border dispute and in 2004 the UAE launched a public diplomatic campaign to persuade Saudi Arabia to revisit the issue. The governments of Saudi Arabia and the UAE had already signed the Treaty of Jeddah in 1974 to end forty years of conflict over territory. However, discrepancies between the oral agreement and final text led to recurrent tensions. This book offers understanding about how the Treaty of Jeddah came about and why the UAE were so quick to sign an agreement they would later regret.