King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud's 18 months on the Saudi throne have been marked by an unprecedentedly energetic and dynamic foreign policy expanding Saudi influence. Riyadh has been far more willing to take risks in national security choices than in recent decades. In the process, the Saudis have acquired some strategic territory.
The king's decision to restore Saudi sovereignty over two uninhabited islands, Tiran and Sanafir, in the Gulf of Aqaba and take possession of them from Egypt is a prime example of his aggressiveness. Saudi kings since Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud have left the two islands under Egyptian control to avoid getting involved in the sensitive issue of passage through the Straits of Tiran. Now Riyadh plans to build a bridge across the straits to provide a land link from the kingdom to North Africa. The islands will be inhabited at least by customs and toll collectors.
The annexation provoked controversy in Cairo and undermined Salman's client, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Egyptians complained Sisi was giving away part of their country. Many saw it as a naked payoff for the billions in aid and investment Saudi Arabia has made in Egypt since they helped orchestrate Sisi's coup in 2013. It makes Saudi Arabia the dominant power in controlling access to the Gulf of Aqaba and the ports of Eilat in Israel and Aqaba in Jordan. Riyadh has committed to ensuring free access.
At the other end of the Red Sea, the king's war with the Houthi rebels in Yemen has given Saudi Arabia de facto control of the Yemeni side of the crucial Bab al-Mandab Strait between Asia and Africa. The Saudis took control of the port of Aden on the entrance to the Red Sea a year ago and the strategic island of Perim in the Bab al-Mandab last October. Their Yemeni allies control Socotra Island in the Gulf of Aden as well. This spring, Saudi and Emirati troops took control of the capital of the Hadhramaut region of southeast Yemen, Mukkala, away from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Mukkala is the fifth-largest city in Yemen and provides the Saudis with land access across the Empty Quarter Desert to the Indian Ocean.
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