CAIRO — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi ratified a treaty that hands over two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, the Cabinet said Saturday. Sisi ratified the maritime border treaty days after parliament approved the deal, which has been the subject of a confusing legal battle with one court annulling the treaty and another upholding it.
The treaty, first announced in April 2016, had fueled rare protests and police have arrested dozens of activists over the past week after calls for more demonstrations. It had also been challenged in courts, but the country's highest tribunal had suspended the contradictory rulings this week until a final decision determined which court has jurisdiction.
Parliament's vote on June 14 came after days of heated debate, with opponents even interrupting one committee session with chanting. The government has said the islands were Saudi to begin with, but were leased to Egypt in the 1950s. Opponents of the agreement insist that Tiran and Sanafir are Egyptian.
Sisi on Tuesday had again insisted on the need to return the islands to their "owners". "Nations are governed by constitutions and laws and legitimate rights, not whims or emotions," the presidency had quoted him as saying.
Generations of Egyptians had grown up learning in school that the two islands belonged to their country and that soldiers had died defending them during wars with Israel. — AFP
