Transfer Red Sea islands step closer

cairo - Egypt may possibly nonetheless indicate Saudi Arabia two uninhabited islands in the Red Sea. An Egyptian court took Sunday according to sources dashed by a previous ruling in which the transfer of Tiran and Sanafir was banned.

The Egyptian government announced last year wanting to cede the islands to Saudi Arabia. That led to a storm of protest. A judge ruled in January that the government could not prove that the islands are Saudi Arabia. That judgment would now be undone, but the transfer of the islands is therefore far from certain.

So can still be appealed against the ruling and the Parliament the last word on the issue. Critics also say that the court was not competent to wipe the previous ruling of the table.

Officials from both countries have said earlier that the islands were under Egyptian control just because Riyadh had asked to protect them in Cairo in 1950. Opponents argue that the islands are under Egyptian rule since 1906.