Egypt arrests 12 over island transfer protests

Egyptian police arrested 12 people involved in a protest against the transfer of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia that was approved last week.

The arrests were made yesterday around the Journalists’ Union building in central Cairo where dozens of people, including lawyers and journalists, had gathered to demonstrate.

Last week, state media reported that the Egyptian government approved the maritime border agreement and sent it to parliament for ratification despite a court ruling the deal unconstitutional earlier this year.

The transfer was announced alongside a Saudi aid package last year leading to mass condemnation of the “land sell-off”.

The territorial deal, announced in April, caused public uproar among many Egyptians who said the uninhabited islands of Tiran and Sanafir belonged to their country.

Tiran and Sanafir are in the narrow entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba leading to Jordan and Israel.

Saudi and Egyptian officials state that the islands belong to Saudi Arabia and were only under Egyptian control because Riyadh asked Cairo to protect them in the 1950s.