El-Sisi defends island move, silences critics

CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has reiterated that the two Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir had always belonged to Saudi Arabia and that Egypt had only been looking after them.
In an impromptu two-hour policy speech to a group of parliamentarians, ministers and senior editors in the presidential palace on Wednesday, he said: “Egypt does not sell its land to anyone and it does not take anyone’s land.”
Egyptian officials confirm that Tiran and Sanafir belong to Saudi Arabia and were only under Egyptian control because the Kingdom’s founder asked Egypt in 1950 to protect them. This fact, said El-Sisi, was recognized by former President Hosni Mubarak in 1990.
El-Sisi suggested conspirators were working against the country. “The conspiracy by the people of evil, they have been at work, and are still working,” he said. “Trust the man you entrusted with your country, with your honor. Your land is your honor.”
He added: “We don’t sell our land to anyone, and we don’t take anyone’s rights. Why are Egyptians more suspicious of each other than people are in other countries?”
Speaking at a press briefing with Egyptian journalists on Sunday, Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said Saudi Arabia had documents to prove that it owned the two islands.
Al-Jubeir rejected reports that there had ever been a dispute between Cairo and Riyadh over the ownership of the islands.