Egyptian court voids block on islands transfer to Saudi Arabia

An Egyptian court has overturned a judicial decision preventing the transfer of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, Reuters reported, citing unnamed judicial sources.

The Court of Urgent Matters ruled as void the January decision of the High Administrative Court, potentially reviving the deal to transfer the islands that had led to protests in Egypt last year.

The High Administrative Court had in June scrapped Egypt’s plan to transfer the two uninhabited islands to Saudi Arabia after a maritime demarcation accord was announced last April. The accord awarded sovereignty of the islands to Saudi Arabia.

The decision by the Court of Urgent Matters is subject to appeal and any final deal must be approved by the parliament, the report said.

Human rights lawyer Khaled Ali, whose case in the administrative court had nullified last year’s agreement, said the ruling was beyond the jurisdiction of the Court of Urgent Matters.

"The high administrative court rulings are final, and their implementation may not be stopped or nullified except by another ruling of the high administrative court," Ali is reported to have posted on his Facebook page.

Saudi and Egyptian officials had argued that the Red Sea islands Tiran and Sanafir belong to Saudi Arabia and were only under Egyptian control because Riyadh asked Cairo in 1950 to protect them.

However, lawyers who had opposed the accord said Egypt's sovereignty over the islands dated back to a treaty in 1906, before Saudi Arabia was founded.