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LAND BOUNDARIES 273
and that each Government should administer one such area. After
further discussions, the Saudis agreed to the Kuwaiti suggestion
respecting the division of administration in the Zone and in August
1963 it was reported that the parties had reached agreement on the
principle of the division of the Zone.1 Further top level discussions
were later held between the two parties on the problem of the division
of the Neutral Zone and on other related problems, such as the
demarcation of the Zone's offshore boundaries and the status of
Qaru and Umm al-Maradim islands.2 Following talks on these points,
it was revealed that the two Governments initialled on 8 March 1964
an agreement by which the Neutral Zone was to be divided between
them into two equal parts, for administrative purposes, without, how­
ever, affecting the existing arrangement under the fUqair Convention
of 1922 respecting the equal participation of natural resources in the
Zone.3 This agreement did not cover the other two questions relating
to the demarcation of the Zone's offshore and the status of the islands.
These questions were regarded as ‘purely legal questions’ which should
be studied by ‘a conciliation commission of impartial legal experts
which would be asked to recommend a suitable solution to the two
governments'.4

The Kuwait-Saudi Arabia Agreement to partition the neutral zone,
signed on 7 July 1965s
According to this agreement, the parties have agreed to put an end
to the temporary state of affairs prevailing under the Convention of
"Uqair of 2 December 1922,
by means of partitioning that Zone into two sections, so that the one shall
be annexed to the State of Kuwait and the other shall be annexed to the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, provided that these equal rights of the two
parties shall be preserved in full in the whole partitioned Zone as this had
originally been decided by the Convention made at A1 Uqair that it is shared
between the two parties, and shall be safeguarded by the provisions of
international responsibility. . . . (The Preamble)

1 MEES, No. 44, 6 September 1963.
2 MEES, No. 17, 28 February 1964.
3 MEES, No. 22,3 April 1964. And see ibid., 13 and 27 March 1964. The Neutral
Zone Agreement of 8 March 1964 was ratified by the Saudi Arabian Council of
Ministers on 1 April 1964, and by the Kuwaiti Council of Ministers on 23 March
4 MEES, No. 19, 13 March 1964. For further useful information on these
matters, see ibid., 28 February 1964.
5 For the Arabic text of the agreement, see Umm al-Qura, No. 2132, dated
18 Rabi II 1386 (5 August 1966). And sec Appendix XII for non-official transla­
tion supplied by Dr S. Hosni, a former legal adviser, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Kuwait.