Scarce water resources in the desert kingdom limit the amount of barley that is grown locally. The five-year development plan to the year 2000 targets a cut in water usage, particularly in agriculture, which consumes about 90 percent of all water used in Saudi Arabia. The minister lied when he claimed that it is cheaper to pay subsidies for internal production. On the 25 th , Reuters proclaimed that the border row between Saudi Arabia and Yemen was close to being solved. The article stated that Saudi Arabia's Defence Minister Prince Sultan said he hoped a solution to a long-standing border dispute between his country and neighbouring Yemen was imminent.
Negotiations are on the right path.
He said Yemen's security concerns centred around what it considered as backing by some Gulf Arab states of a failed secessionist attempt by southern Yemeni leaders in 1994. Yemeni officials had also accused Saudi Arabia of playing a role in several kidnappings of foreigners in Yemen in a bid to undermine its stability and taint its democratic experience. Al-Quds reported much the same story on the 19 th . In line with all our previous comments. The statement was quoting the Jordanian prime minister who said that Aqaba was going to be a duty-free zone between Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Israel.