An Egyptian parliamentary committee has voted to approve the transfer of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia under a 2016 agreement with Riyadh. Tuesday's vote in the legislative and constitutional committee — 35 for, 8 against — is an important step toward the approval of the agreement by the full house, virtually a foregone conclusion given that an overwhelming majority of the chamber's 596 members support President Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi. The vote came on the third day of a debate by committee members. Egypt's government says the islands are Saudi but were placed in Egyptian custody in the 1950s for protection against a possible Israeli attack. On Sunday, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told Egypt MPs that the government approved signing a maritime border demarcation deal with Saudi Arabia in 2016 only after a national committee working on the issue reached the conclusion that there was no legal foundation for Egypt's possession of the islands of Tiran and Sanafir. Shoukri was addressing Egypt's Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee, which began discussing the deal on Sunday. The agreement places the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir in Saudi maritime waters, and was signed during the visit of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman to Cairo in April 2016. In an official statement to the MPs, Shoukry said the maritime border deal between Egypt and Saudi Arabia was signed by the two governments only after they had held 11 rounds of negotiations. "An Egyptian national committee — including representatives from the ministries of foreign affairs and defense and from the intelligence apparatus — was formed in 2010 to take charge of negotiating this deal," said Shoukry. "The national committee's conclusion was based on the fact that former president Hosni Mubarak had ratified the deal in January 1990 (decree 27 of 1990), stating that the two islands of Tiran and Sanafir are part of Saudi Arabia," he said. "The national committee also took note of former Egyptian foreign minister Essmat Abdel-Meguid's letter to his Saudi counterpart in March 1990, informing him of the Egyptian cabinet's approval of this deal," Shoukry. Shoukry indicated that due to its international commitments, above all the peace treaty with Israel, Egypt asked the Israelis to respect the deal between Egypt and Saudi Arabia after it goes into effect. "The Israelis said they would respect this deal and would honor all international commitments even after the two islands are handed to Saudi Arabia," he said. — Agencies
