Word: aden
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...placed at the mouth of the Red Sea, were reunited last week after more than 400 years. Once the Queen of Sheba's realm, Yemen has been divided since the 16th century, when first the Ottoman Turks and later the British colonized the southern territory around the port of Aden...
With a population of nearly 12 million, the new Republic of Yemen could become a regional power. Its assets include oil reserves estimated at up to 4 billion bbl. and a new commercial capital at Aden. The once busy port has lost Western business since it fell into pro-Soviet hands, but refueling at Aden could come back into favor: it would save ships 2 1/2 days of sailing...
...Yemenis are also cautiously looking West for more help. Canadian and French oil companies have signed contracts for oil exploration and drilling. And for the first time since British rule ended, Western businessmen are again traveling to Aden to invest in the government's ambitious plans...
Still, South Yemen remains firmly in the Soviet orbit. Aden's strategic location gives the Soviet navy a deep-water port with excellent facilities to service its large Indian Ocean fleet. From there, Soviet ships could control access in or out of the Red Sea, a choke point of global importance. South Yemen refuses to accord the U.S.S.R. full base rights for its navy, and is rumored to restrict port calls by Soviet warships to twelve a year. But bunkering and repair services are always available...
Little has changed as yet in this impoverished land. Around Aden, a busy port where several thousand ships call each year, swarm laborers clad in sarongs and tribal headgear. The nation comes close to feeding itself but its searing bone-dry desert climate offers little room for agricultural expansion. Except for a 1950s Chinese-built textile mill and an old refinery, there is little manufacturing. Much of the country is pitifully underemployed...