During a visit to the region later this month, US President Joe Biden is expected to announce that Israel has agreed to new security arrangements that will allow Egypt to cede control of two islands in the Tiran Strait to Saudi Arabia. To the Israeli magazine Jerusalem Post.
There is currently a multinational force in the Tiran and Sanafir islands that Saudi Arabia does not want to be in control of, and under an agreement to be announced soon, Israel will agree to deploy a force on the islands that will remain in Egyptian territory. They stay. , Several kilometers away.
In return, Saudi Arabia will allow Israeli airlines to fly over its airspace. Currently, only Israeli flights to the UAE and Bahrain can fly over Saudi Arabia, as well as Air India flights to and from Israel.
In an interview published on Friday, June 3, 2022, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid told the Jerusalem Post that the normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia “will take place in small steps.”
For his part, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in an interview with Foreign Affairs this week: “Saudi Arabia is our vital partner in countering extremism in the region, facing the challenges posed by Iran. “We also hope that the process of building relations between Israel and its neighbors will continue.” Far and near through the continuation and expansion of normalization agreements.
“While Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan has not ruled out talks, he has stated that diplomatic relations with Israel are not on the horizon, while bin Farhan told the World Economic Forum in Davos this week:” We have always seen normalization, as the end result of the road to peace with the Palestinians.
It is worth noting that the American site Axius had previously revealed that the Biden government was seeking secret mediation between Saudi Arabia and Egypt to reach arrangements to complete the transfer of sovereignty over the Tiran and Sanafir islands in the Red Sea. From Cairo to Riyadh, while Tel Aviv made a condition for the kingdom to agree to it.
For its part, the Israeli website Ma’ariu previously revealed that the US covert efforts were also aimed at normalizing relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which would be a unique achievement for the Naftali Bennett government and Biden’s foreign policy in the Middle East.
The multinational force is patrolling the islands strategically located at the gates of the Red Sea, the only shipping route to Eilat. Because former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser closed the Strait of Tiran on the eve of the 1967 Six-Day War.
The 1979 Egypt-Israel “peace” treaty stipulates that the Tiran and Sanafir islands will be free of international troops and under international supervision, and that any change in the status quo would require Israel’s approval. And the Israeli website quoted US officials as saying that the Saudis intended to end the work of international surveillance teams on the two islands, in exchange for a commitment to keep the two islands without troops and to guarantee the freedom of navigation on the two islands. . Straits of two islands
Saudi Arabia first ceded control of the two islands to Egypt in the 1950s, and Egypt has agreed to return them in recent years, and Israel agreed in principle in 2016, but alternative security arrangements have not been completed.
Source: Lebanon Debate
