Jerusalem-Israel signaled on Tuesday it did not oppose the return of two Red Sea islands in a strategic strait to Saudi Arabia by Egypt, with one senior lawmaker seeing a chance to get closer to Riyadh, with which Israel has no formal peace agreement. The letters also include a text of a classified cable to the U.S. ambassador in Cairo in 1950 indicating that Tiran and Sanafir are two Saudi islands where the USA secretary of state said that “Egypt has placed the two islands under its control to protect them against the Israeli aggression through coordination with Saudi Arabia, which accepted this situation to ward off any foreign attack against the two islands”, the IDSC statement indicated. “Even if Saudi Arabia is entitled to the islands … to hand them over to Saudi in this way, without consideration for Egyptians, showing no respect for their feelings, presence and even their pride in their nation?” television chat show host Wael El Ebrashy said on Sunday night.
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The announcement, which came as a surprise to many Egyptians who thought the islands belonged to their country, came during a five-day visit by Saudi King Salman. “Please let’s not talk about this issue again”, he said. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz addressed an assembly of Egyptians yesterday in a historic speech in Egypt’s parliament.
In his Wednesday remarks, Sisi blamed “evil folks” for the killing, without elaborating.
Egyptians took to social media networks to express their shock and anger upon hearing the news, Reuters reported.
Regeni disappeared on January 25 as the Egyptian police were on high alert to prevent any protests commemorating the anniversary of the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
Egyptian authorities informed Italian authorities on February 3 that Regeni’s body had been found along a highway on Cairo’s outskirts.
The Egyptian leader has in the past accused unidentified parties of seeking to isolate Egypt and undermine its government by engineering the death of Regeni, which poisoned Cairo’s close relations with Rome.
Italy is Egypt’s biggest trading partner in the European Union and the two countries have been coordinating on their handling of the rise of Islamic militants in Libya, Egypt’s western neighbor and Italy’s former colony.
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The US and the multinational peacekeeping force deployed in Tiran and Sanafir did not oppose the deal, the report said.
