Alwaght- Egyptian troops have used teargas to disperse masses protesting against the president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s decision to hand over two of the country’s Islands to the Saudi regime.
Thousands of Egyptians angered by Sisi’s transfer of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia called for his government to fall in the largest demonstration since the former military general took office in 2014.
On Monday, riot police backed by armored vehicles were positioned in Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square, the epicenter of Egypt’s 2011 Islamic uprising, and at a suburban square where at least 600 Muslim Brotherhood supporters were killed in August 2013 in anticipation of protests.
The largest protest took place in the afternoon in Giza's Dokki district and was dispersed by security forces using teargas, with dozens of protesters reportedly arrested.
According to press reports, some of the protesters dispersed by police at the Dokki march have sought refuge at the nearby headquarters of the Nasserist Karama Party, with security forces besieging the building.
The protests, which coincided with a national holiday celebrating the Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula in 1982, came as the Egyptian president faced mounting criticism for a government accord accepting that the uninhabited Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir are in Saudi waters.
The announcement came during a visit to Egypt this month by the Saudi monarch, King Salman, as the kingdom announced a 20 billion-dollar assistance program to El-Sisi’s regime, fuelling charges that the islands were sold off.
Located at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, the uninhabited islands of Tiran and Sanafir are important because they could virtually control access to Occupied Palestine’s Red Sea Port of Eilat from the Indian Ocean.
On Sunday Egypt’s military-backed ruler El-Sisi had vowed to suppress planned anti-government protests over his decision to hand over two of the country’s islands to the Saudi regime.
Police have arrested over 120 people across eight governorates in recent days, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. Groups of youth were arrested at coffee shops and others were targeted in their homes, the Cairo-based human rights group added.
Egypt's press syndicate condemned on Monday what it described as "harassment attempts" by "regime supporters" to storm its headquarters in downtown Cairo.
