NAN-F-15
Deal
Cairo, June 21, 2017 (Reuters/NAN) Egypt’s top constitutional court on Wednesday stopped halt all verdicts on an islands transfer deal until it makes a decision on the constitutionality of the agreement.
The ruling came a week after Egypt’s parliament backed plans to hand over two uninhabited Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia under an accord that has attracted widespread public criticism.
Parliamentary leaders and government lawyers said that the House of Representatives is the only entity allowed to rule on matters of sovereignty, but it has been opposed by one court.
President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi can still ratify the agreement.
NAN reports that on June Egypt’s parliament approved the transfer of the two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia under a contentious border agreement that has angered many Egyptians and triggered rare protests against the government.
Al-Sisi’s administration decision to put the agreement to a vote in parliament came despite the country’s courts voiding the deal.
Police clashed with dozens of protesters in downtown Cairo who opposed the deal.
The border agreement was first announced in April while King Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Saudi monarch, was on a state visit to Egypt.
It shocked many Egyptians who had grown up with geography books describing the islands as Egyptian territory.
To many, it looked like a humiliating concession their rulers had made in order to secure Saudi financial support.
The border negotiations were held in secret and it was not previously known that Saudi Arabia had any claim to the islands.
Opponents say the government is giving up territory for which Egyptian soldiers died in wars to free the Sinai peninsula from Israeli occupation.(Reuters/NAN)
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