Egypt’s Court of Urgent Matters upheld the transfer of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia on Sunday. The decision overturned a previous ruling nullifying the agreement between Cairo and Riyadh – a deal which had sparked angry demonstrations in Egypt.
In January, the High Administrative Court in Egypt rejected the government’s plan to transfer the sovereignty of two uninhabited islands in the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia after a maritime demarcation accord between the two countries was announced last April.
The accord awarded sovereignty of the islands, Tiran and Sanafir, to the Gulf kingdom, triggering protests by the Egyptian public who said the islands are Egyptian and accused their president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of “selling” the islands to secure an aid package worth five billion US dollars from the wealthy oil state.
The latest judicial decision could be appealed, and the parliament has the final say in the transfer deal.
The islands at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba control the shipping lanes running north to the Red Sea port cities of Eilat and Aqaba, in Israel and Jordan respectively.
Saudi Arabia and al-Sisi, who staunchly defended the agreement, argue that the islands belong to Saudi Arabia and have been under the control of Cairo only because the Saudis had asked Egyptian troops to protect them in 1950.
However, the account has been challenged by opponents to the transfer, who have said that Egypt’s sovereignty over the islands goes back to 1906, before Saudi Arabia was founded.
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