Signed in April, the agreement was recently referred to the House of Representatives (pariament) for ratification after complex legislative entanglements. The agreement caused widespread uproar among activists who see the two islands as Egyptian territories. Meanwhile, the Cairo Summary Proceedings Court on Wednesday ruled in favor of an Interior Ministry case to ban protests around the Cabinet building in downtown Cairo. Khaled Ali said that Interior Ministry’s decision of imposing an 800-meter exclusion zone around governmental institutions to ban protests is unconstitutional. Political parties that have called for the protest at the cabinet building announced that they have called it off.

Source: Egypt Independent January 15, 2017 11:46 UTC