Egypt and Saudi Arabia reached an agreement in June concerning their maritime borders that provided for transferring ownership of the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia. This raised the ire of the Egyptian street, provoking protests in opposition to the move. Despite all that, an Egyptian administrative court ruled that the islands are still legally Egyptian, providing a victory to Egyptian public opinion that was opposed to the official position of the state and government.

The government and members of the House of Representatives desperately defended the transfer of ownership of the two islands to Riyadh while the Egyptian street burst out into protests repudiating the agreement.

The agreement would convert the straits of Tiran into an international waterway that other states, including Israel, would be entitled to use. In contrast, prior to the agreement’s signature, the straits were an Egyptian waterway that no other state was entitled to use without Egyptian agreement, according to Khalid Ali, the lawyer who brought a lawsuit against the state and won the first round in the administrative court.

Ali is an Egyptian lawyer and politician, a member of the Socialist Front and the director of the Egyptian Center for Social and Economic Rights. He had previously participated in establishing the Hisham Mubarak Center for Law. Ali spoke with Al-Monitor about the documents he used to support the Egyptian claim to the two islands.