Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Ceding of Red Sea islands sparks fury
Egypt police fire tear gas, break up anti-government rallies
CAIRO: Egyptian security forces fired tear gas yesterday as thousands gathered in downtown Cairo chanting “leave, leave” while protesting against President Abdel- Fattah elSissi’s decision to hand over two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.
It was the first significant wave of street protests since the former army chief became president in 2014.
Riot police first cracked down on protesters in Cairo’s twin city of Giza, where demonstrators had gathered at two prominent mosques after Friday prayers and started marching toward Tahrir Square.
Many carried signs reading, “Land is honour” and denouncing the surrender of the islands. Others chanted: “The people want the fall of the regime” and “Down with military rule”.
After police fired tear gas, the protesters ran in all directions, according to videos posted online by activists.
Several photojournalists covering the protests were briefly detained near alIstiqama mosque in Giza.
Egypt’s state news agency quoted an unnamed official as saying the protesters were members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group and they chanted “anti-regime slogans.”
The official said police responded with tear gas after protesters threw rocks at them.
Another demonstration of nearly 2 000 protesters gathered at the stairs of the Press Syndicate, a few metres from a armoured vehicles and hundreds of police in riot gear who sealed off the surrounding streets. The protesters there chanted: “They sold our lands to the Saudis.”
What infuriated many was the secretive nature of the deal and particularly its timing. It was announced at the same time the Saudis were pledging billions of dollars in loans, causing critics and even some former el-Sissi supporters to accuse the president of a desperate and humiliating territorial sell-off.
El- Sissi has defended his decision on the islands and tried to defuse the storm stirred up by the decision.
The government maintains that the islands of Tiran and Sanafir at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba belong to Saudi Arabia, which asked Egypt in 1950 to protect them from Israel.
Israel captured the islands in the 1967 Six Day War, but handed them back to Egypt under their 1979 peace treaty.
In response, Egyptians have taken to social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter, posting numerous old maps to prove Egypt’s ownership of the islands.
Though relatively small in number, the protests come at a time of public tension and tight security, underscoring increasing public discontent at elSissi’s rule since he was elected president in 2014.
A year earlier, as army chief, he led the overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Mursi following mass protests against Mursi’s rule. El-Sissi also led the military’s crackdown on thousands of Islamists who staged sit- ins and rallies across Egypt to demand Mursi’s reinstatement. Thousands were imprisoned and hundreds killed in the crackdown.
El- Sissi is Egypt’s fourth president in six years, after millions of Egyptians revolted against the longtime autocratic rule of Hosni Mubarak and his police state in 2011.
Hailed by his supporters at the time as the country’s saviour, el-Sissi has faced a series of crises in recent months including a surging Islamic insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula, a declining economy, and deeply disenchanted youth and democracy advocates who see him as another version of Mubarak. – ANA-AP