The goal of King Salman’s visit to Egypt is to shake hands with every Egyptian and he officially announced that Egypt is a strong ally and backer of Saudi Arabia just as his country strongly backs and supports Egypt. King Salman sent a message to all, regionally and internationally, that the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Egypt is strategic and aims to encourage real Arabism.
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King Salman’s visit to Egypt did not intend to satisfy a specific institution, party or ideology, it was a historic handshake with all of Egypt. In this historic visit, the Saudi monarch became the first king to visit Al-Azhar mosque according to a statement from Al-Azhar itself.
Social media users in Egypt expressed outrage over the news as they accused the government of selling the two islands to Saudi Arabia in return for political and massive financial support.
After completing the landmark visit in Egypt, Saudi King Salman arrived in Turkey on Monday for a visit aimed at tightening increasingly close ties between the two overwhelmingly allies, receiving a lavish welcome that underlined the strength of relations.
A new agreement between Egypt and Saudi Arabia over control of two islands in the Gulf of Aqaba has implications for the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, thus requiring Cairo to keep officials in Jerusalem informed of the developments.
“As long as the Saudis are OK with Israel and the Arabs are focused on efforts against Iran, Saudi-Egypt control of the Red Sea is not a problem”, he said.
Riyadh has given significant financial and diplomatic backing to Egypt since President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi – then head of the armed forces – toppled then president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
“Planners believe that tolls paid by millions of Muslim pilgrims on their way to holy sites in Saudi Arabia could make up for the expected cost of the bridge within seven-10 years”, noted Shay in a recent report published for the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the IDC.
The deal on Tiran and Sanafir paves the way for the construction of a bridge linking Saudi Arabia to Sharm el-Sheikh, at the tip of the Sinai peninsula.
It will be unreasonable to deny our brothers their right to holding on to their own territory when all documents prove their ownership. Lawmakers also recited poetry praising the Saudi royalty. When the House of Saud conquered the Hejaz in 1926, it gained the territory that stretched up to the Gulf of Aqaba below Jordan, and maintained that the two islands belonged to it. After Israel was established in 1948, yet another claimant emerged. “Even if at the moment those Arab states are cooperating with us, it is problematic, in that their basic attitude to Israel has not changed”.
In the meantime, the price of petroleum quadrupled in the 1970s and Saudi Arabia emerged as among the wealthiest countries in the world.
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Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said Cairo had never claimed sovereignty over the two islands. In its 1979 peace deal with Israel, Cairo promised to respect freedom of shipping in Aqaba and Eilat, a commitment that Saudi Arabia says it will uphold when it takes over the islands.
