Egypt parliament approves 2 islands’ transfer to Saudi

By Mohamed Mahmoud

CAIRO (AA) - Egypt's parliament on Wednesday approved a controversial maritime border demarcation agreement -- signed last year between Cairo and Riyadh -- transferring sovereignty over two uninhabited Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.

The move comes despite widespread popular opposition and a January ruling by Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court that confirmed Egypt’s sovereignty over the islands and rejected their proposed transfer to Saudi Arabia.

Earlier Wednesday, parliament’s committee on defense and national security likewise approved the agreement. And on Tuesday, the deal was approved by parliament’s legislative and constitutional committee.

According to the agreement’s terms, sovereignty over the islands of Tiran and Sanafir -- located at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba between Saudi Arabia and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula -- will be transferred from Egypt to Saudi Arabia.

In April of last year, Cairo first announced plans to transfer the two islands, which have remained under Egyptian sovereignty for more than six decades, to Saudi ownership.

The move prompted a public outcry amid accusations that President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi was “selling” Egyptian territory to oil-rich Saudi Arabia, which since 2013 has given billions of dollars to Egypt to shore up the country’s ailing economy.