Egypt is delaying the implementation of the agreement with the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel regarding the islands of Tiran and Sanafir in the Red Sea, which paved the way for Saudi normalization measures towards Israel during President Biden's visit to the Middle East in July, according to four senior Israeli officials and an American source familiar with the matter.
why is it important
The agreement that included a series of understandings between the US, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt was a significant foreign policy achievement for the Biden administration as well as for the Israeli government.
The agreement was supposed to complete the process of transferring the islands from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, which lasted over five years.
Behind the Scenes
As part of the agreement, the US-led international observer force, which had been stationed on the islands for several decades, was supposed to leave the islands for a new base in the Sinai Peninsula by the end of December.
However, in recent weeks, Egypt began to raise before the US, before the international inspection force and before other parties a series of reservations, mainly of a technical nature, regarding the implementation of the agreement.
One of the Egyptian reservations concerned the part of the agreement that deals with the installation of cameras that will be used to monitor what is happening on the islands.
The cameras are supposed to be used as a substitute for the placement of the inspectors so that it is possible to make sure that the islands remain a demilitarized area from the military and that the Straits of Tiran remain open without hindrance to freedom of navigation.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met last week with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who visited Washington as part of a summit of US and African leaders.
According to Israeli and American sources, Sullivan raised the issue of the Red Sea Islands Agreement with the Egyptian president and emphasized that the Biden administration wants to see it implemented.
Senior Israeli officials said that the agreement, including the departure of the international observers from the islands, will not be implemented until the end of December as stipulated, due to the Egyptian reservations.
The Egyptian embassies in Washington and Tel Aviv did not respond to inquiries on the subject.
The Saudi embassy in Washington also did not comment.
the situation picture
Senior Israeli officials said to Voila!
Because they believe that Egypt is delaying the implementation of the agreement on the islands in the Red Sea because of issues concerning relations between the US and Egypt, including US military aid.
The Biden administration has already twice frozen 10 percent of the military aid to Egypt which amounts to 1.3 billion dollars a year, and this is because of concern about the human rights situation in Egypt.
Earlier this year, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy blocked the transfer of an additional $75 million in military aid to Egypt, also due to the country's human rights situation.
During the visit of the person in charge of the Middle East at the US State Department, Barbara Leaf, to Cairo in October, senior Egyptian officials told her that they expect the administration to transfer military aid in full, if the US does see Egypt as a strategic partner, according to sources who were informed of the details of the meeting.
According to the sources, Leaf encouraged Egyptian officials to work more systematically with the US Congress to ensure that the military aid was approved.
For their part, the Egyptian officials made it clear to Leaf that they do not intend to launch lobbying efforts with members of Congress every year and emphasized that when there is an issue that is important to the administration, the White House knows how to pass it through Congress.
The White House and the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem refused to comment on the matter.
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Quick reminder
Despite public protests, the Egyptian parliament approved in 2017 the return of sovereignty over the islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia.
The Egyptian Supreme Court finally upheld the move in 2018.
But the agreement needed Israeli consent.
The peace agreement between Israel and Egypt from 1979 stipulated that the islands should be demilitarized from military forces and that an international observer force under American command would be stationed there.
In 2017, Prime Minister Netanyahu gave consent in principle to the move subject to an agreement being reached between Egypt and Saudi Arabia regarding the continuation of the work of the international observer force and the maintenance of freedom of navigation in the Straits of Tiran.
No such agreement was reached, mainly because Saudi Arabia demanded that the international observer force leave the islands.
The Saudi position created a need for a new arrangement between all the countries involved.
In September 2021, the Biden administration began secret talks with Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia in an attempt to reach a new agreement.
On July 14, 2022, a day before the arrival of President Biden to visit Saudi Arabia, an agreement was reached.
According to the understandings between the parties, the international observer force was supposed to leave the island of Tiran and move to a new base in the Sinai Peninsula and from there continue to remotely monitor the situation on the islands using cameras.
between the lines
As part of the understanding regarding the islands, Saudi Arabia agreed to allow planes of Israeli airlines to use Saudi airspace for flights to the East.
The Saudis also agreed to discuss having direct charter flights from Israel to Saudi Arabia for Muslim pilgrims during the Hajj.
The move encountered difficulties not only from the direction of Egypt but also from the direction of the Sultanate of Oman, which does not agree at this stage to let Israeli airlines use its airspace.
The Biden administration has held many talks with the Omanis on the issue, so far without success.
Without permission to pass through Oman's airspace, the flight path to the east over Saudi Arabia will remain blocked and the gesture of normalization that Saudi Arabia gave to Israel and the US in July will become meaningless.
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