Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

April 14, 2016

Saudi Arabia Now Controls the Red Sea. Israel Doesn’t Mind

Egypt just gave Riyadh two strategic islands.

After its victory in the Six-Day War, Israel seized two Egyptian islands in the Red Sea—Tiran and Sanafir—in order to prevent Cairo from imposing a blockade as it did in the 1950s and again in 1967. They were returned to Egypt in the peace agreement of 1978. Now Egypt has handed the islands back to Saudi Arabia, which had previously controlled them. Armin Rosen comments on the Israeli reaction, or lack thereof:

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