Egypt will keep administrative control over two Red Sea islands it plans to transfer to Saudi Arabia, according to a government report advising parliament on the terms of the agreement. The report is the first indication Egypt intends to maintain some control over the uninhabited islands, whose transfer to Saudi Arabia sparked fury among many Egyptians and was declared illegal by an Egyptian court. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government announced last year a maritime demarcation accord with Saudi Arabia, which has given billions of dollars of aid to Egypt, ceding control of the Tiran and Sanafir islands to the Gulf kingdom. “The agreement only ends (Egyptian) sovereignty and does not end the necessity of Egypt protecting this area for reasons of Egyptian and Saudi Arabian national security,” the report said. The transfer plan sparked rare street protests last year from many Egyptians, who say their country’s sovereignty over the islands dates back to a treaty in 1906, before Saudi Arabia was founded.

Source: Egypt Independent June 11, 2017 15:11 UTC