“To remedy issues of our nations, with the Palestinian cause at the forefront, we are required to be united in one stance, one word”, he said, adding: “The Saudi-Egyptian cooperation we are witnessing today is a blessed beginning for our Arab and Muslim world to achieve balance after years of destabilization”.
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The Egyptian government said that the decision to cede the islands within Saudi waters is the culmination of six years of negotiations.
The agreement was signed in Egypt’s Abdeen palace in the presence of the country’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi’s King Salman during his four-day visit to the North Africa country.
Egypt’s economy started faltering during the Arab Spring in 2011, and Saudi Arabia has been helping Egypt since 2013.
The islands, Tiran and Sanafir, are unpopulated, and have been recognized by treaty as part of Egypt since the 1840 Convention of London. The islands are of strategic importance due to their location on the sea passage on the Gulf of Aqaba, leading to major ports in Jordan and Israel.
In one of the most high-profile announcements, Cairo said it had agreed to demarcate its maritime borders with Saudi Arabia, officially placing the two islands in the Straits of Tiran in Saudi territory.
Saudi Arabia and Egypt have announced plans to build the King Salman Bridge, named after the current leader of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud. Ryad asked in 1950 Egypt “to ensure the safety of the two islands”, explains the Egyptian government in a statement. Numerous critics cited an agreement reached between Egypt and the Ottoman Empire in 1906 that awarded sovereignty over the islands to Egypt. Others posted video clips of nationalist President Gamal Abdel-Nasser, who ruled Egypt in the 1950s and 1960s, asserting Egypt’s ownership of Tiran. The islands are less than five miles between the coastlines of both Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and just south of Israel.
“The two islands are Egyptian 100 percent”, she said. Former head of Egypt’s Military Operations Authority, Abdel Munem Said, said Tiran and Sanafir belong to Egypt. He urged the parliament, which must ratify the agreement, not to endorse it.
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Also, 21 agreements and memorandums of understanding were signed between the two countries in the various fields. The construction project could badly affect tourism at the Sharm el-Sheikh resort on the Red Sea near the Strait of Tiran. Israel, fearing the North African would make such a deal in order to mend the country’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, warned Egypt that transferring the islands would constitute a violation of the peace treaty between the two countries.
