Sisi ratifies handover of islands to Saudi Arabia

cairo — Egypt’s president has ratified a 2016 agreement under which his country would transfer control of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. News of President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi’s ratification of the maritime border demarcation agreement came in a Cabinet statement issued on Saturday.

The ratification followed the June 14 approval of the agreement by parliament.

The government says the two islands have always been Saudi but were placed under Egypt’s protection in the 1950’s amid Arab-Israeli tension.

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. —