Egyptian President Sisi ratifies Red Sea islands handover to Saudi Arabia

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Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi ratified on Saturday the maritime demarcation deal for the transfer of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, official MENA news agency reported.

The Egyptian president's ratification came more than a week after the Egyptian parliament approved in a general vote the controversial agreement to hand over the islands of Tiran and Sanafir to the Saudis.

Lawmakers were divided over the maritime demarcation deal, signed last year during a rare visit of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to Egypt, yet the majority of the parliament members voted for it. The agreement cannot take effect without Sisi's ratification.

The Egyptian parliament approved in a final vote a controversial deal under which Egypt is to transfer two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia on June 14, 2017. /VCG Photo

Sisi and his administration said the two islands originally belonged to the oil-rich kingdom and it is time to return them to their rightful owners, while opponents of the deal believe the islands are Egyptian and giving them up will be sacrificing national soil for temporary interests.

The deal has gone through a judicial debate in Egypt. While previous administrative court rulings invalidated the deal, a later verdict from the court of urgent matters halted the invalidation ruling.

Egypt's top constitutional court ruled Wednesday to temporarily halt all previous verdicts on the country's islands transfer deal with Saudi Arabia until it makes a decision on the judicial conflict of the rulings.

After last year's administrative court ruling, Saudi Arabia temporarily halted fuel shipments to Egypt, part of its aid deal. At the time, both sides denied any political fallout was involved and relations have since improved.

Protesters shout slogans and hold a banner that reads in Arabic "Two Red Sea islands are Egyptian" in Cairo, Egypt, June 13, 2017. /Xinhua Photo

Saudi Arabia led Gulf support to Sisi's government with billions of US dollars and tons of oil supplies following the Sisi-led overthrow of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

"The transfer has been a long time coming; Riyadh has made it clear they expect the islands and Cairo agreed," said H.A. Hellyer, senior non-resident fellow at American think tank Atlantic Council.

"But considering the amount of opposition to the transfer, the speed at which it happened is instructive. It shows Sisi's administration doesn't feel there is much of a risk to be taken."

(Source: Xinhua, Reuters)