While Yemen is undergoing drastic social, political and economic changes, Saudi Arabia, the region' super-power is ever increasingly looking nervously as its southern border, fearing that its unruly neighbor's crises might spill over onto its territories and thus undermine the security of the kingdom.

Alleging the combined threats of terrorism and broad trafficking Saudi Arabia has now announced it will resume the construction of its border-fence barrier, which will run across the entire 1,800 Km of the Yemen-Saudi border demarkation line. This titan project aims essentially to cage out Yemen, preventing not only groups from infiltrating Saudi Arabia but also foiling any factions' hopes to reignite a decades' old border dispute with al-Saud.

Although Yemen former President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed in 2000 to end a bloody and lengthy territorial feud with the Saudi King by signing the Jeddah border agreement, in essence giving out Yemen's claims over several provinces which until 1934 war used to be attached to Sana'a northern kingdom, several factions, among which the Houthis (Shia militarized political faction with alleged links to Iran) have negated the agreement, alleging state officials had sold out Yemeni lands for power and money, thus making the treaty illegitimate and void.

And if Yemen and Saudi Arabia have enjoyed friendly relations for over a decade now thanks to former President Saleh's foreign policy, several factions and groups in Yemen would like to reclaim what they call "Yemen stolen lands" as to re-establish Yemen's might, both economically and politically.
As it happens many of the territories in question are home to vast reserves of oil and gas, estimated to be worth billions of dollars, raising some questions as to Saudi Arabia's intent to maintain Yemen in state of semi-poverty as to retain its own economic and political hegemony in the region.
And indeed if Saudi Arabia can rule unchallenged and undisturbed over royalties in the Arabian Peninsula, knowing that its size alone would deter neighboring monarchies from rising against al-Saud, Yemen is an entire matter altogether. The most populous country of the Peninsula, Yemen is home to 24 million Yemenis. The country's natural resources surpasses by far that of his neighbor and its military might could quite comfortably withstand any foreign threats.
According to recent studies Yemen's oil reserves would account for 30% of the world's reserves, outbidding Saudi Arabia itself.
So far Yemen has not been able to exploit its oil and gas resources, whether due to a lack of security or foreign investments; but given half a chance Yemen could rise a giant in the region, a thought which is not pleasing Saudi royals.

A land dispute would completely throw of the fragile balance which Saudi Arabia so carefully build over the years. Moreover, Yemen's claims over its long lost lands could potentially lead to another military stand-off at a time where regional stability is at an all time low and could prompt other regional powers to utilize such an opportunity to serve their own hegemonic agenda, namely Iran, Saudi Arabia religious nemesis.

Yemen and Saudi Arabia border
After more than 65 years of sporadic conflict, Yemen and Saudi Arabia finally agreed on where the border lay in 2000 when former President Ali Abdullah Saleh inked in Jeddah an agreement which was meant to put to rest decades of tension.
The long-running boundary dispute between Saudi Arabia and Yemen can be traced back to the controversial Mecca Agreement in 1926 under which the territory of the south west Idrisi emirate, long claimed by Yemen, came under the sovereignty of the newly established state of Saudi Arabia. The ensuing dispute over the sovereignty of the former Idrisi territory, comprising of the provinces of Asir, Jizan and Najran, led to the brief Saudi-Yemen border war that was concluded in May 1934 with the Treaty of Taif.
Yemen recognized Saudi sovereignty over Asir, Jizan and Najran and the boundary line was defined as "final and permanent."
Not long after the signature of the Treaty, the legality of the agreement was challenged and all Yemeni governments since 1932 publicly thereafter rejected its terms, arguing they were forcibly imposed by Saudi Arabia. Yemen then demanded that a new border agreement be drawn.
On the matter Yemen had a strong ally in late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser who famously declared “Any power can attack the Yemeni people ... the Yemeni revolution is our revolution, and the revolution of all the Arabs ... We could simply isolate Saudi from Yemen completely by taking Jizan and Najran. The Jizan province belongs to Yemen and was usurped by the Saudis in an invasion in 1930.
The Yemenis have the right to demand [the return] of Jizan and Najran. We will be fighting in this war. We Egyptians alongside the Yemenis...Therefore no power can attack the Yemeni people’s revolution."

Former President Saleh however crushed Yemen's dreams to see its rich lands restored when he agreed in 2000 to abandon all sovereignty claims on the provinces of Asir, Jizan and Najran.
Opposition groups told the press back in 2011 they believed Saleh had received a payment of $18 billion in exchange for his cooperation in solving Yemen-Saudi Arabi land dispute.

Asir group
Asir a rights organization announced back in 2012 it was starting a national campaign to return what it called "Yemen stolen territories" from the Saudi occupiers.
The group which allegedly harbor close ties with Iran and the Houthis has accused Yemeni officials and notables of having financially benefited from the sale of Yemen's lands to al-Saud.
In June 2012 Abdul Rahman al-Ashwal, the group' spokesperson told the press his primary goals is " to create internal Yemeni awareness and establish and deepen the importance of a national popular awareness of its rights and territories under Saudi occupation. Preparations are underway to establish a popular and civil protest movement against the Taif and Jeddah border agreements."
The movement stated the importance of “unifying the internal Yemeni front through rejecting Saudi control over Yemeni decision-making processes and indicting public figures who hold their hands out to Saudi money as well as taking legal action against them for their involvement and assistance in abdicating Yemen’s historical right to its territories, occupied by our usurping neighbor and its wealth, land, and natural resources.”

Asir is basing its claims on a comment made by late President Ibrahim al-Hamdi in 1977 during a state visit to Taif in Saudi Arabia, “I am still in Yemeni territory. If you wish to discuss the issue, we can start with this point."

Asir maintains that territorial rights do not have a statute of limitation.