Cairo court blocks island transfer

An Egyptian court has ruled that previous judicial decisions in favour of transferring two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia were invalid. The courts have issued contradictory rulings since Cairo signed a 2016 deal to transfer the islands to Riyadh. A report on the News24 site notes that the government says the two islands, Tiran and Sanafir, belong to Saudi Arabia but had been leased to Egypt in the 1950s. Parliament approved their controversial transfer nearly two weeks ago. The Administrative Court last week ruled that all judicial decisions taken to date by the Urgent Matters Court would be considered invalid.