Askar H. Enazy

On April 8, 2016, in the presence of Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the King of Saudi Arabia, and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, at the latter’s presidential palace of Al-Ittihadiyah in Cairo, Egypt’s prime minister and the Saudi deputy crown prince cosigned the maritime boundary delimitation agreement between the two countries concerning the area along the Red Sea. It quickly became known, in the media of both countries and beyond, as the “Tiran and Sanafir Accord,” a reference to two uninhabited islands at the entrance of the Gulf of Aqaba that, though not mentioned by name in the text of the agreement, were recognized implicitly as constituting part of the Saudi territorial sea.

As stipulated in its articles, the boundary agreement would come into force only after being ratified by both contracting countries in accordance with their respective constitutional procedures. This Saudi Arabia had done shortly thereafter. Egypt, on the other hand, has not, despite that the fact that more than one year had already passed since it placed its signature on the accord. The Egyptian cabinet did not approve the agreement until the end the year, on December 29, before referring it to the parliament, which has not yet set a date to debate it.

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