Columnists collectively shake their heads at the Tiran and Sanafir saga

As expected, the nation’s columnists are still collectively shaking their heads at the handover of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia. The entire ordeal was mismanaged and showed a lack of political wisdom on the government’s part as it insisted on passing the contentious agreement during such volatile times, Al Ahram’s Farouk Goweida says, adding that it was, above all else, a loss for democracy. Al Masry Al Youm’s Mohamed Kamal agrees on the democracy bit and says it highlighted the clear lack of political parties to lobby for a certain viewpoint. The only thing that would make the issue worse would be President Abdel Fattah El Sisi ratifying the islands’ handover before holding a public referendum or waiting for the Supreme Constitutional Court’s final verdict on the agreement, Amr Hashem Rabie writes for AMAY.