6 | Modern Saudi Arabia it has been reported that Saudi Arabia began removing sections of its border wall with Yemeni governorates of Sa’dah and Hajjah. The issue of Saudi Arabia’s offshore boundaries is a similarly complicated one. The Saudi government claims a 12-nautical-mile limit offshore as well as a number of islands in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. With the discovery of vast oil reservoirs in the Gulf, it became imperative to establish a median line between Saudi Arabia and Iran. But it was only in the 1970s that such a line was finally negotiated and established, following a number of incidents between the Aramco offshore oil rigs and the Iranian navy. See also: Chapter 2: Third Saudi State: Saudi Arabia in the 20th Century. Chapter 3: Gulf Cooperation Council. Chapter 4: Oil Industry and Aramco OPEC and OAPEC. Further Reading Al-Enazy, Askar. The Long Road from Taif to Jeddah: Resolution of a Saudi-Yemeni Bound- ary Dispute. Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research, 2005. Al-Mazrouei, Noura Saber. The UAE and Saudi Arabia: Border Disputes and International Relations in the Gulf. I. B. Tauris, 2016. Morton, Michael Quentin. Buraimi: The Struggle for Power, Influence and Oil in Arabia. I. B. Tauris, 2013. Climate Saudi Arabia is located in one of the harshest natural environments on Earth. However, for millennia the Arabian Peninsula was home to a much more favorable climate. In prehistoric times, the peninsula looked very diff erent: it was a green savanna with ample rainfall and diverse wildlife, crossed by large river systems. Over time, several factors played their roles in radically changing the area’s climate. With the ending of the last Ice Age about 15,000 years ago, the retreat of the glaciers led to a prolonged drought. Grad- ually, its rivers evaporated, and the once fertile land turned to desert. The formation of various mountain ranges in the Middle East, as well as changes in ocean currents and monsoon patterns, have contributed to gradual desertification of the region. Currently, most of Saudi Arabia has a very hot climate that one associates with des- erts, but there are important variations that influence the country’s development proj ects. The kingdom can be divided into three main climate zones: (1) desert environment in various parts of the country (2) steppe environment along the western highlands, forming a long strip between 100 and 300 miles wide and (3) an area of balmy and humid climate in the mountains near Yemen. In the interior region, the lack of humidity causes temperatures to rise sharply during the day, registering temperatures as high as 130 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. The same lack of humidity causes temperatures to drop drastically after sun- set, sometimes as sharply as by 70 degrees in less than three hours. Subfreezing tem- peratures are common in winter. Strong desert winds, such as the southern Kauf and the northwestern Shamal, create major dust storms.
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