Egypt: Court blocks Red Sea island handover

Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court upheld a lower court’s ruling to cancel a deal between Cairo and Riyadh to hand over two uninhabited Red Sea islands, Tiran and Sanafir, to Saudi Arabia (GSN 1,018/4). The court ruling on 16 January was a victory for opposition groups in Egypt, but will further test the tense relationship between the two countries. The deal to cede the islands had been signed in April, during a visit by King Salman Bin Abdelaziz to Cairo, and Riyadh has been unimpressed by the court-ordered halt to the process.