Gov’t approves agreement to transfer Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia, court approves

Has the endgame in the rift with KSA begun? The Ismail government approved an agreement to transfer the Tiran and Sanafir islands to Saudi Arabia on Thursday and passed it on to the House of Representatives for approval. On Saturday, the “appeals court in Cairo upheld a verdict by a lower court that annulled a ruling by the administrative court, which had said the agreement to hand over the islands was void,” Reuters reported. It was unclear whether parliament would consider the matter before an expected ruling from the higher administrative court scheduled for 16 January, Bloomberg says. Meanwhile, KSA appears to be moving to heal its strained relations with GCC ally Oman — Iran’s best friend in the Gulf — which signaled that it will be joining a KSA-led military alliance.