US President Joe Biden and the White House announced on Friday that the peacekeeping force will leave by the end of this year the strategic island of Tiran located in the Red Sea, over which sovereignty has been transferred along with another island from Egypt to Saudi Arabia.
Biden said in a speech during his visit to Jeddah following meeting with Saudi officials that “international peacekeeping forces, including the American forces, will leave Tiran Island in the Red Sea, where they have been for more than 40 years.”
The White House, for its part, said in a statement that the withdrawal would take place at the end of the year.
Raising the Saudi flag over nearby Tiran and Sanafir is subject to Israel’s approval because they are part of peace agreements concluded between the Hebrew state and Egypt.
“Arrangements have been reached for the withdrawal of the peacekeeping forces of the multinational force and the development of this area (…) for tourism and development,” the White House statement said. “President Biden welcomed this arrangement, which was negotiated over several months, and took into account the interests of all parties, including Israel.”
He continued, “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia agreed to respect and continue all existing commitments and procedures in the region,” which basically stipulated that the two islands be considered part of a region where there are no military forces and a multinational peacekeeping force is deployed.
The island of Tiran, with an area of 61.5 square kilometers, lies regarding six kilometers from the eastern coast of the Sinai Peninsula, where the tourist city of Sharm El-Sheikh is located, at the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba. As for Sanafir, which extends over an area of 33 square kilometers, it is located 2.5 km to the east.
The islands control the Strait of Tiran, which allows access to the Israeli ports of Eilat and Aqaba, Jordan, from the Red Sea.
The two uninhabited islands have been under the control of Egypt since 1950 and were occupied by Israel during the Suez War, which it fought once morest Egypt with France and Britain in 1956.
The two islands formed the spark that ignited the Arab-Israeli war in 1967 when Egypt announced the deployment of its forces there and the closure of the Strait of Tiran.
Egypt regained control of the two islands in 1982 under the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty signed in 1979, which stipulated that the two islands be considered part of an area where there are no military forces, but only police forces, and a multinational peacekeeping force is deployed.
Five Americans were killed on Tiran Island in 2020 in a helicopter crash.
On April 8, 2016, Cairo and Riyadh concluded an agreement to demarcate the borders, which stipulated the transfer of the dependency of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia, following widespread legal controversy in Egypt, anger and small protests, which were immediately suppressed.
The transfer of sovereignty over the two islands to Saudi Arabia is actually subject to Israel’s approval, as they are part of the peace agreements concluded with Egypt. The Hebrew state announced a few days ago that it “has no objection” to handing them over to the kingdom.
Observers believe that the Israeli green light for the transfer of the two islands to Saudi Arabia is one of the additional indications of the existing openness between Israel and the Kingdom in the direction of normalizing relations between the two countries one day.