Saudi Arabia - Government In January 1994 the Chairman of the PLO, Yasser Arafat, visited Saudi Arabia (Riyadh) the Middle East peace settlement with King Fahd. This meeting represented a significant rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and the PLO in the wake of the 1990-91 Gulf crisis. In January 1995 King Fahd held a meeting in Mecca with Yasser Arafat, and in April Saudi Arabia became the first Arab country to recognize passports issued by the Palestine National Authority (PNA). In January 1995 King Fahd held a meeting in Mecca with Yasser Arafat, and in April Saudi Arabia became the first Arab country to recognize passports issued by the Palestine National Authority (PNA). In June the Council of Ministers approved the import of goods made within the area controlled by the PNA. In July 1995 Jordan´s Minister of Foreign Affairs met his Saudi counterpart in Riyadh, the first high-level visit made by a Jordanian official since the Gulf crisis. The normalization of relations between the two countries began in November with the appointment of a Saudi ambassador to Jordan. Relations were consolidated in February and August 1996, when King Hussein of Jordan met Crown Prince Abdullah in Saudi Arabia. In December 1994 Yemen accused Saudi Arabia of encroaching on its territory by erecting monitoring posts and constructing roads on Yemeni territory. Relations had been strained as a result of Saudi Arabia´s apparent support for secessionist forces in Yemen earlier in the year. There was a further deterioration in January 1995, when the two countries failed to renew the 1934 Ta´if agreement renewable every 20 years, which delineated their de facto frontier. In June President Saleh of Yemen visited the kingdom, accompanied by a high-level delegation. This was the first official Yemeni visit since February 1990. Meetings of the joint committees continued into 1996, and in July the two countries signed a border security agreement. Despite reported tensions negotiations on border demarcation continued in 1997. In November, however, armed clashes on the border resulted in the deaths of three Saudis and one Yemeni border guard. In early 1998 both countries expressed their desire to resolve the border issue, in order to establish stable and secure relations between the two countries. King Khalid died in June 1982 and was succeeded by Crown Prince Fahd, who, following precedent, became Prime Minister and appointed a half-brother, Abdullah ibn Abd al-Aziz (Commander of the National Guard since 1962), to be Crown Prince and First Deputy Prime Minister. As a result of its position as the world´s leading exporter of petroleum, Saudi Arabia is a dominant member of the OPEC and one of the most influential countries in the Arab world. In September 1994 Saudi Arabia, in common with the other GCC members, agreed to a partial removal of the economic boycott of Israel. In March 1995 it was announced that quotas for Israeli Muslims wishing to participate in the Hajj were to be ended. In late March 1997, however, in condemnation of recent Israeli settlement policy, ministers of foreign affairs of the Arab League of (which Saudi Arabia is a member) recommended a number of sanctions against Israel. In common with most other Arab League and GCC members, Saudi Arabia did not attend the Middle East and North Africa conference in Doha, Qatar, in November 1997: the boycott was in protest at the presence of a delegation from Israel, which was regarded as failing to fulfil its obligations under the Middle East peace process. In July 1995 officials from Saudi Arabia and Oman signed documents to demarcate their joint border. In the same month it was reported that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had made progress on the demarcation of their mutual sea border.