Subject: Re: Tiran Island<br/>
Date: Aug 07, 2001 @ 12:04<br/>
Author: Martin Pratt (&quot;Martin Pratt&quot; &lt;m.a.pratt@...&gt;)<br/>
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<div id="ygrps-yiv-1288846253">The notion that Tiran and Sanafir have been leased by Saudi Arabia to<br/>
Egypt is news to me as well. I researched the question of ownership over<br/>
these islands a few years ago and came to the conclusion that their<br/>
sovereignty is indeterminate.<br/>
<br/>
Saudi Arabia certainly laid formal claim to them in 1957, and in 1982<br/>
asked Egypt (which was policing the islands under the terms of the Camp<br/>
David agreement) to return them to Saudi jurisdiction. When Israel<br/>
warned that it would not withdraw from Sinai if the islands were to<br/>
revert to Saudi authority, the Saudi government decided not to pursue<br/>
the matter (probably at the insistence of the USA). Saudi Arabia<br/>
continues to treat the islands as Saudi territory in planning<br/>
documents - for example, Tiran was declared a protected area in 1995 -<br/>
but it does not appear to have actively pursued its claim on the world<br/>
stage.<br/>
<br/>
As far as I can ascertain, Egypt has never formally claimed sovereignty<br/>
over Tiran and Sanafir, but in 1954 an Egyptian statement to the UN<br/>
Security Council noted that the islands had been administered by Egypt<br/>
since 1906 and that they were now an integral part of the national<br/>
territory. In recent years a number of ships have foundered on the reefs<br/>
around Tiran, and on several occasions the vessels have been impounded<br/>
and heavily fined by the Egyptian authorities, apparently without<br/>
protest from Saudi Arabia. Whether Egypt was acting as owner of the<br/>
island or simply as the state that was in the best position to protect<br/>
the fragile marine environment in the northern Red Sea is not entirely<br/>
clear.<br/>
<br/>
My guess is that Egypt and Saudi Arabia are both keen to avoid a<br/>
high-profile quarrel over the islands, as Israel would almost certainly<br/>
intervene in any dispute which threatened to interfere with its access<br/>
to the Red Sea. But if relations between Egypt and Saudi Arabia were<br/>
ever to sour, I would not be surprised if the status of Tiran and<br/>
Sanafir became an issue between them.<br/>
<br/>
m a r t i n<br/>
<br/>
==================================<br/>
Martin Pratt<br/>
Research Officer<br/>
International Boundaries Research Unit<br/>
Mountjoy Research Centre, Suite 3P<br/>
University of Durham<br/>
Durham DH1 3UR<br/>
United Kingdom<br/>
<br/>
+44 (0)191 374 7704 (direct line)<br/>
+44 (0)191 374 7702 (fax)<br/>
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==================================</div>