Yemens hope to unite

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33060, 30 October 1972, Page 15

Yemens hope to unite

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

CAIRO, October 29.

The two Yemen Arab republics hope to create a new and strong Arab State at the strategic southern entrance to the Red Sea, after signing an agreement on unity yesterday.

The new States, with one capital, flag and leadership, will face tough tasks, foremost of which will be the transformation of a virtually medieval society to fit the twentieth century.

The two Yemeni Prime Ministers agreed to create specialised committees to start work on the unification of all institutions in the two countries and draft a Constitution within a year of signing. Informed sources in Cairo said that the actual unification was expected to take a further six months. The leaders also agreed in a separate statement to withdraw from the frontier areas and from areas occupied since the beginning last month of the latest flare-up in three years of intermittent fighting. These areas include the strategic Kamaran Island which North Yemen occupied during the recent hostilities. Although only a few miles off the northern coast,

the island’s inhabitants chose to stay with South Yemen when it became independent from Britain in 1967.

A constitution on unity will be put before the 6.5 million inhabitants of the two Yemens.

If the scheme goes through the Yemen will become the third largest state after Iraq and Saudi Arabia in the Arab south and the Gulf area. It could have remarkable political weight in the area's affairs.

The two Heads of State, who will meet on November 25, face considerable problems in drawing up a common foreign policy. Foremost among them is the new country’s attitude towards Saudi Arabia, friend of the Arab Republic of (North) Yemen and avowed enemy of the People’s Democratic Republic of (South) Yemen. Saudi Arabia has never recognised South Yemen, although the two are members of the Arab League. Also to be settled is the South’s tough attitude towards the Gulf States, which it has not recognised. The North is the only one to have resumed diplomatic relations with the United States, but both countries enjoy good relations with Socialist countries.

The peoples of the two Yemens have called repeatedly for unification since the British occupied the southern part of the Yemen in the eighteenth century.