The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Qatar on Thursday signed a border demarcation agreement at United Nations headquarters in New York putting an international seal of approval on a 1965 agreement between the Arabian Peninsula neighbors. “This is the icing on the cake,” said Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to the United Nations Khalid Al-Nafisee before the signing ceremony. “We now have an internationally accepted document.” The United Nations requires member states to register their maritime border agreements. The agreement then becomes an official U.N. document and is legally binding under international law. The U.N.'s Assistant Secretary General for Legal Affairs joined Ambassador Al-Nafisee and Qatari Ambassador Abdulaziz Al-Nasser for the signing ceremony. In a statement put out by the Saudi U.N. Mission after the signing, Ambassador Al-Nafisee “expressed his deep satisfaction over the deposition of the Joint Minutes related the Land and Maritime Border Delimitation Agreement,” which is the official name for the border agreement. “He extolled the fruitful cooperation between the two countries at all levels, which reflects the aspirations of the two countries to strengthen the friendly and brotherly love between the two countries,” the statement added.
