The Saudi Arabia Report
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Saudi Arabia is located
in the Middle East, bordering the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea,
north of Yemen.Saudi
Arabia has five major physical regions: the great Rub al-Khali, a sand
desert occupying the entire south and southeast; the Nejd, a vast barren
plateau in the center; the Hejaz and Asir, along the Red Sea, with mountains
rising from an arid coastal plain; and the Eastern Province, along the
Arabian Gulf, site of the country's rich oil resources. The climate is
usually hot and dry, although the humidity along the coasts is high. Saudi
Arabia has at least one quarter of the world's oil reserves, and the oil
industry dominates the economy. Huge revenues from oil exports have been
used to diversify the industrial base; metals, chemicals, plastics, cement,
and fertilizer are now produced. Irrigation projects have reclaimed many
acres of desert, and grains, dates, citrus fruits, and vegetables are grown.
Nomadic Bedouins raise camels, sheep, goats, and horses. Income is also
derived from Muslim pilgrims who travel from all parts of the world to
the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The overwhelming majority of the population
are Arabs who adhere to the Wahhabi sect of Islam, but 27% of the population
consists of resident foreigners. Arabic is the official language.
The Saudis take their
name from the ruling al-Sa'ud family. They were united by conquest between
1902 and 1932 by King Abdul Aziz al-Sa'ud, who expelled the Turks. In 1957
a university was opened at Riyadh; other universities are at Dhahran, Dammam,
Jedda, and Makka. Oil was discovered in 1936 by the U.S.-owned Arabian
Standard Oil Company, which later became the Arabian American Oil Company
(Aramco). Commercial production began in 1938. Saudi Arabia is a charter
member of the United Nations. In1972 the government of Saudi Arabia demanded
tighter rein on its oil industry as well as participation in the oil concessions
of foreign companies. Aramco and the government reached an agreement in
June, 1974, whereby the Saudis would take a 60% majority ownership of the
company's concessions and assets. By the early 1980s, Saudi Arabia had
gained full ownership of Aramco. Saudi support of Iraq in the Iran-Iraq
War became increasingly problematic in the mid-1980s as Iran's threats,
especially regarding oil interests, nearly led to Saudi entanglement in
the war. In the late 1990s, Crown Prince Abdullah, the king's half-brother
and heir to the throne since 1982, effectively became the country's ruler
because of King Fahd's poor health. Under the crown prince, the country
has been more openly frustrated with and critical of U.S. support for Israel.
A treaty with Yemen that ended border confusion dating to the 1930s was
signed in 2000, and early the next year both nations withdrew their troops
from the border area in aggrement with the pact.
Geography
Saudi
Arabia Map
EU,
US aides hold talks as Israel tightens Nablus grip
By Nazir Majally, Arab News Staff
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 3 June — The European Union and the United States kept
up
diplomatic efforts yesterday to revive the Middle East peace process, but
Israeli forces still occupied
the Palestinian city of Nablus, with Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer
warning the situation was
“explosive.”
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said after a meeting with Israeli
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres
that a regional conference to tackle the 20-month-old crisis should be
held “as soon as possible,”
in late July. Peres stressed in his talks that Israel had no intention
of permanently
reoccupying Palestinian areas, as the army sat in Nablus for a third
day.
Israeli forces that have been occupying Nablus in the West Bank since Friday
dynamited the house
of an activist leader assassinated last month by the Israeli Army. Troops
also arrested overnight
four female Nablus university students, members of Palestinian President
Yasser Arafat’s Fatah
movement who were accused of being involved in a plan to launch more attacks
in the coming
days, Israeli public radio said.
Ben-Eliezer warned top US Middle East envoy William Burns that the situation
in the region is
more dangerous than the calm of the past week. “The situation in the region
is
serious and much more explosive than it appears since there are constantly
warnings and very
hard attacks planned by Palestinian terrorist organizations,” Ben-Eliezer
said.
Both Burns and Egyptian presidential adviser Osama Al-Baz told the hawkish
Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon he would have to work with Arafat, the elected Palestinian
leader, although Sharon’s
insistence that his Palestinian rival is “irrelevant to the peace process.”
Meanwhile, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was set to hold talks in Cairo
with US Central
Intelligence Agency chief George Tenet, officials said. A US official said
Tenet’s mission was to
help Palestinians reorganize their security services, a scheme that was
reportedly proposed by
Egypt. He is expected in Israel today.
In another development, Arafat said upcoming reforms of his administration
will be a “radical” move
in an interview published yesterday in the Greek daily Vradyni. “It will
be radical. All the ministries will
be changed,” Arafat said in the interview conducted May 25, four days after
he signed the de facto
constitution which had been adopted by parliament five years before. He
said the reshuffle would
take place within a maximum of 30 days.
Their greatest success to date was their appearance in the 1994 FIFA World
Cup USA™, as they became the first Asian side since North Korea in
the 1966 FIFA World Cup England to progress from the group stage to the
second round. Four years later, however, the Saudis were unable to live
up to pre-tournament were followed by a consolation draw with South Africa.
The
Saudis had started badly in the final qualification round, doing no better
than a draw against Bahrain in Riyadh, and then losing to Iran in Tehran.
These poor results brought then head coach Slobodan Santrac's spell in
charge to an early end. Al Johar was hastily summoned back to the helm,
and he swiftly brought about a change in fortune: he led Saudi Arabia to
the top of the group, and they are now the first Arab country to have qualified
three times in a row for the FIFA World Cup finals.
Name:
Sami Al Jaber
Nationality:
Saudi Arabian
Date
of birth: 11 December 1972
Height:
1.70m
Weight:
65kg
FIFA
World Cup™ finals: 1994, 1998
Games
played in FIFA World Cup™ finals: 5
Clubs:
Al Hilal, Wolverhampton Wander
In
1990, he was called up for the full national side by Saudi coach Carlos
Alberto Parreira (manager of Brazilian side that lifted the 1994 FIFA World
Cup™) and in the same year scored his first international goal.
Four
years later, he was an integral part of the Saudi team which successfully
qualified for USA 94™. In the deciding game against Iran, he hit the net
3 times in an exciting 4 -3 win to help take a team from the Persian Gulf
to a FIFA World Cup™ finals for the very first time. Al Jaber's consistently
impressive performances was by now
attracting
a good deal of attention among European scouts. In August 2000, he spent
5 months on loan with English first division side Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The
physical demands of the English game, however, proved a little much for
Al Jaber - the first Saudi professional ever to ply his trade in English
football. He spent much of his time out through injury and returned to
Al Hilal somewhat disillusioned. Although Wolves wanted to extend his loan
period by two months when he recovered from injury, the Al Hilal management
turned down the offer.
He
slotted easily back into Saudi football and remains one of the best and
most popular players at his club. He is expected to go down in Saudi Arabian
Football history by participating at his third FIFA World Cup ™ finals.
Visit
the official website of the 2002 World Cup
