Angry protesters filled the streets of Cairo April 15, outraged over the maritime border demarcation agreement signed by the Egyptian and Saudi governments during a five-day visit by King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud that began April 7. It was Salman’s first visit to Egypt since taking office in January 2015.

Under the new agreement, Egypt formally recognized the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir, at the southern entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba, as belonging to Saudi Arabia. In 1950 during the reign of King Farouk, custody of the islands had been transferred to Egypt at the request of Saudi King Abdul-Aziz Al Saud because Saudi Arabia lacked a naval force to protect the islands against possible Israeli expansion following the 1948 war in Palestine, in which Israel defeated Arab armies.

Under President Anwar Sadat, Egypt held that the islands were part of the Hijaz, a region in northwest Saudi Arabia on the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea, and thus did not subject them to the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty after the 1978 Camp David Accords. Thus the treaty does not recognize Egyptian ownership of the islands.

Article V of the treaty specifies that the parties consider the Strait of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba to be international waterways open to all nations for unimpeded and non-suspendable freedom of navigation and overflight. At the time, Saudi Arabia did not demand the return of Tiran and Sanafir, to avoid having direct relations with Israel and because it did not need them.