Egypt will be attending one of Saudi Arabia’s premier travel conferences, the Riyadh Travel Fair 2016, from April 12-15, where tourism operators, hoteliers and members of the general public will meet with high-level tourism officials from Egypt to learn and discuss how the ETA is whole-heartedly encouraging Arab travelers to consider holidaying in the country.
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An Egyptian news site appears to have altered a major headline on Tuesday, and critics are alleging that it did so in order to avoid angering the Egyptian government.
An Egyptian cabinet announcement said that technical work on the two countries’ maritime boundary had shown that the islands of Tiran and Sanafir were within Saudi territorial waters.
Five protesters have been released from police custody after being detained on suspicion of attempting to hold an illegal protest as Saudi King Salman bin Abdel Aziz was addressing parliament on Sunday.
Ya’alon said that a request had been made to Israel regarding the transfer of the islands of Tiran and Sanafir from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, since Israel’s freedom of passage in the area was ensured in a 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, Ha’aretz reports. Ahmed el-Naggar, the head of the main governmental newspaper al-Ahram, wrote in a Facebook post that “elements of our national borders are untouchable” and that “Egyptians have a long history of protecting Tiran from occupation”.
The agreement provoked an immediate backlash in Egypt, with thousands of Twitter users accusing Sisi of selling the islands.
The visit comes at a time when Egypt is suffering political and economic pressures due to years of domestic political turmoil that led to economic recession and security challenges resulting from regional chaos.
There are two main issues in the agreements that affect Israel, said Col. (res.) Dr. Shaul Shay, director of research at the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya.
Joint efforts by Saudi Arabia and Egypt will “hasten the elimination of terrorism”, he said.
Since he ousted Morsi in 2013, Saudi Arabia has supported former army chief Sisi. This negates the conspiracy theories directed at the two countries that accused Saudi Arabia of being inclined to Hosni Mubarak or supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis.
Saudi support for Cairo has helped Sisi tighten his grip on Egypt after he crushed not just the Brotherhood and secular dissidents. However, unlike Saudi Arabia, Egypt has not called for the resignation of Syrian President Bashar as a solution to the Syrian conflict.
Netanyahu did not itemize those “challenges”, but debkafile’s sources were informed that he was beaming a message to the Saudi king and Turkish president, that Israel had every confidence in its strategic pact with President El-Sisi holding up against attempts by Erdogan to drive a wedge between Cairo and Jerusalem.
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Saudi Arabia has no diplomatic relations with Israel and it was not immediately clear how or who relayed Riyadh’s commitment to the Israelis.
