Tiran, Sanafir deal moves forward despite new legal challenge

CAIRO – 3 April 2017: Following a court verdict obliging Egypt to hand over two Red Sea islands, Tiran and Sanafir, to Saudi Arabia, the Egyptian parliament is studying the agreement and a new lawsuit is demanding the verdict be dismissed.

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail announced Sunday that the cabinet has already referred the agreement to the House of Representatives, which will look into the issue and present it to the committees in charge.

“Once the parliament starts discussing the agreement, we will be there and we will present all the documents, communications and presidential decisions relevant to the subject,” Ismail said,

according to Al-Masry Al-Youm

.

Meanwhile, a

lawsuit

filed by Egyptian lawyers Khaled Ali and Malek Adly on Monday calls for the ruling to be considered a “material obstacle” (irrelevant in terms of the law), and, consequently, be dismissed as well as all of its effects.

The lawsuit further demands that the former ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC), which annulled the deal of Tiran and Sanafir between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, be resumed and implemented.

“We are entrenching our prior verdict to secure the continuance of its implementation,” Adly told Egypt Today, stating that the “SAC is the one that has the competence in this issue and its verdict is trusted.”

The SAC confirmed Egypt’s sovereignty over the islands in January, stating that “the Egyptian government has not provided adequate evidence supporting Saudi Arabia’s claim to the land,”

Mada Masr reported

. However, Egypt’s Court of Urgent Matters annulled the verdict Sunday and asserted the controversial deal per which Egypt will hand over sovereignty of the two islands to Saudi Arabia.

“The [recent] verdict is beyond the boundaries of the law, the constitution and all regulations,” Adly said, calling for the Supreme Judicial Council “to investigate the judge and the verdict that defeat the whole Egyptian judiciary system.”

“The case will be resumed and we will win it,” he added.

Egypt relinquished control of the islands, located at the entrance of the Gulf of Aqaba, in April 2016 when Saudi King Salman bin Abdelaziz was visiting Cairo and reached an agreement with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.