Arrests in Egypt as opposition calls for islands protest

Dozens of activists rounded up after Cairo agrees to give Tiran and Sanafir, at mouth of Gulf of Aqaba, to Saudi Arabia

By AFP 16 June 2017, 12:31 pm

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This photo taken on January 14, 2014, through the window of an airplane, shows the Red Sea's Tiran (foreground) and the Sanafir (background) islands in the Strait of Tiran between Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Saudi Arabia. (Stringer/AFP)

CAIRO — Egyptian police have arrested dozens of activists in the face of opposition calls for protests on Friday after parliament passed a controversial agreement to hand over two islands to Saudi Arabia.

A lawyer working to release the activists said about 50 had been arrested across Egypt since parliament passed the treaty on Wednesday.

Opponents of the government accuse it of trading the Red Sea islands, Tiran and Sanafir, for Saudi funding.

“We hope the people show up (to protest) because without the people we can’t defend what is their right,” said former presidential candidate and opposition leader Hamdeen Sabbahi in a video message.

On Tuesday, dozens of journalists had protested against the agreement in central Cairo before being dispersed by the police.

Egyptian former presidential candidate Hamden Sabahy (C) attends with dozens of Jjurnalists a demonstration at the Syndicate of Journalists in Cairo on June 13, 2017, after a controversial agreement for Cairo to hand over two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia passed an Egyptian parliamentary committee Tuesday. (MOHAMED EL-RAAI / AFP) — Egyptian former presidential candidate Hamden Sabahy (C) attends with dozens of journalists a demonstration at the Syndicate of Journalists in Cairo on June 13, 2017, after a controversial agreement for Cairo to hand over two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia passed an Egyptian parliamentary committee Tuesday. (Mohamed El-Raai/AFP)

The announcement of the agreement in April 2016 had sparked rare protests in the country despite a heavy-handed crackdown on demonstrations.

Generations of Egyptians had grown up learning in school that the two islands belonged to their country and that soldiers had died defending them during wars with Israel.

Lying at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba, the islands can be used to control access to the Israeli port of Eilat. They were captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war before being returned to Egypt under the 1979 Camp David Accords.

A court had struck down the deal last April but another court upheld it.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi went ahead with the deal even though it threatened to dent his popularity, and at a time that the government, grappling with austerity reforms that have fueled inflation, is wary of protests.