US President Joe Biden said on Friday that international peacekeepers, including the US, would leave the island of Tiran by the end of this year, the island over which Egypt relinquished its sovereignty to Saudi Arabia in 2016.
The statement issued by Saudi Arabia and the United States yesterday, Friday, after Biden held talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, stated that American forces and other peacekeeping forces would leave the island of Tiran, where they are stationed, as part of agreements concluded in 1978, which led to a peace agreement between the two countries. Israel and Egypt.
Tiran occupies a strategic position at the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba between Saudi Arabia and Egypt on the way to the Israeli port of Eilat.
4 decades
In a speech after his meeting with senior Saudi officials, the US President said that the international peacekeeping forces will leave the island of Tiran in the Red Sea, where they have been for more than 40 years.
"We have reached arrangements for the withdrawal of the peacekeepers from the Multinational Force and the development of this area (in reference to Tiran Island) for tourism and development," the statement said, adding, "President Biden welcomed this arrangement, which was negotiated over several months, and took consideration of the interests of all parties, including Israel.
The White House: President Biden welcomed this arrangement, which was negotiated over several months, and took into account the interests of all parties, including Israel.
In the same statement, the White House stated that “the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has agreed to respect and continue all existing commitments and procedures in the region,” which essentially stipulates that the islands of Tiran and Sanafir are part of a region where there are no military forces, and the multinational peacekeeping force is deployed.
Tiran Island, with an area of 61.5 square kilometers, is approximately 6 kilometers from the eastern coast of the Sinai Peninsula, where Sharm El Sheikh is located. Sanafir Island (33 square kilometers) is located 2.5 kilometers to the east.
The history of the two islands
The two uninhabited islands had been under the sovereignty of Egypt since 1950, and were occupied by Israel during the Suez War that it fought against Egypt with France and Britain in 1956, and the spark that ignited the Arab-Israeli war in 1967, when Egypt announced the deployment of its forces there, and the closure of the Strait of Tiran.
Egypt regained control of the two islands in 1982 under the peace treaty signed with Israel in 1979.
On April 8, 2016, Egypt and Saudi Arabia concluded an agreement to redraw the maritime borders between them, which stipulated the transfer of Tiran and Sanafir's dependency to Saudi Arabia after widespread legal controversy, anger and protest demonstrations that took place in Egypt.