Page 269 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

BRITISH — SAUDI CONTROVERSY OVER BURAIMI 207
resumption of diplomatic relations1 between Britain and Saudi Arabia
on 16 January 1963, it was announced that the two countries had
decided to continue their efforts in the discussion of the Buraimi
dispute under the personal supervision of the Secretary-General of
the United Nations.2 Although discussions on the question have con­
tinued ever since, with some intermissions, there is yet no hopeful
sign in sight of a solution to the problem.

Conclusion
The Buraimi dispute is, in principle, a dispute between Saudi Arabia,
on the one hand, and the Shaikh of Abu Dhabi and the Sultan of
Muscat, on the other, over two main issues, namely, (a) the definition
of the common eastern frontiers between Saudi Arabia and Abu
Dhabi, and (b) the determination of sovereignty over the Buraimi
Oasis. The United Kingdom has been acting in this dispute on behalf
of the Shaikh of Abu Dhabi, for whose foreign relations she is respon­
sible, and the Sultan of Muscat, who appointed her to represent him
in so far as the dispute relates to part of the ‘territory in the Buraimi
Oasis claimed by him to belong to Muscat’.3 The Oasis comprises
nine villages, six of which are claimed by Abu Dhabi and three by
Muscat, while Saudi Arabia is claiming them all.4 The claims of both
sides to the Oasis appear to rest upon their historical connections with
the area, and upon allegiance and payment of the zakah, or political
tributes, by the tribes belonging to the area. As regards the issue
relating to the determination of the eastern frontiers of Saudi Arabia,
the British Government claims that the Anglo-Turkish Conventions
of 1913-14, defining the Turkish possessions in Arabia, formed the
basis of the Saudi eastern frontiers, and that no developments have
taken place in Arabia since 1914, which could establish a Saudi
Arabian claim to areas lying to the west of the ‘Blue Line’. The Saudi
Government does not recognise the validity of the Blue Line, as
defined in the above Conventions, in delimiting its eastern frontiers
with Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Nor does it agree to the definition of its
frontiers on the basis of the 1935 boundary line—so-called Ryan’s
line. Instead, it contends that its frontiers should be delimited on the
basis of its 1949 boundary claim.3

1 Diplomatic relations between Britain and Saudi Arabia were severed following
the Suez conflict in 1956.
2 The Times, 17 January 1963.
3 The preamble of the Arbitration Agreement of 30 July 1954, op. cit.
4 The Economist (London), 28 March 1955; The Times, ‘A Guide to Buraimi’,
1 December 1959.
s For these developments, sec above, pp. 200-01.