No. 1569
Editorial Note
Despatch 432 from Jidda, June 30, not printed, transmitted a copy of the text of the British proposals on Buraimi which Ambassador Pelham submitted to the Saudi Arabian Foreign Office on June 28. In their proposal, the British defined the “Buraimi zone” as an area within a radius of 20 kilometers from the village of Buraimi, and “disputed areas” as the Buraimi zone and all other land claimed by Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi between the Saudi Arabian claim of 1949 and the claim put forward at the Dammam Conference in 1952 on behalf of the ruler of Abu Dhabi. The section regarding oil operations in the disputed zone proposed that for the purpose of oil operations only, and without prejudicing the rights of either side to the disputed territory, the region lying between the 1949 claim of Saudi Arabia and the 1952 claim of Abu Dhabi would be divided along a line called the Fuad Hamza line. (780.022/6–3054)
According to telegram 6 from Jidda, July 4, not printed, the Fuad Hamza line was a vaguely described line dating back to 1935. (780.022/7–454)