39 years later, Riyadh recognizes the Camp David Agreements

Acting in accordance with promise it gave on 11 April 2016, Egypt has finally returned the islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia [1].

This act triggers an obligation on the part of Riyadh to respect the Camp David agreements under which ownership over these two small islands must not prevent movement in the straits and must allow Israeli ships to move freely.

A number of Egyptians have challenged President Al-Sissi’s decision to transfer sovereignty. To make them accept it, the Egyptian government had to claim that Egypt had never actually been in possession of these territories. But facts are hard to challenge and the two islands have belonged to Cairo since the London Convention of 1840. To discourage Egypt from divesting itself of Tiran and Sanafir, Saudi Arabia took two measures. First it blocked the delivery of oil and second it did not follow through with a 12 billion dollar loan. Finally, the Egyptian Parliament hastily validated the agreement.

The de facto recognition of the Camp David Agreements of 1978 (that is to say of peace quite apart from Egypt and Israel) should enable rules to be relaxed between the two countries. We have already announced the secret agreement reached between Tel-Aviv and Riyadh in June 2015 [2], the role of the Israeli army in the “Arab” Common Force in Yemen [3] and how the Seoud Family purchased tactical atomic bombs [4] from Israel. This should have important consequences for the Palestine issue.