Alwaght- Egypt’s military-backed ruler Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has vowed to suppress planned anti-government protests over his decision to hand over two of the country’s islands to the Saudi regime.
He warned of what he labelled as attempts to shake the country’s security and stability on Sunday, one day ahead of Sinai Liberation Day, which has been set by activists as a date for protests over the recent Saudi island deal.
Sinai Liberation Day, 25 April, marks the 1982 withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the Sinai Peninsula.
A government decision this month to cede control to Saudi Arabia of the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir, near South Sinai, sparked protests on 15 April, with thousands of demonstrators protesting near Cairo’s press syndicate.
Though the focal point of the latest protests, the largest the country has seen in months, was sovereignty over Tiran and Sanafir, there were chants calling for the downfall of El-Sisi’s regime.
Several thousand protesters expressed dissatisfaction with his rule on more than one level, including the imprisonment of what they describe as political detainees.
In the days leading up to Sinai Liberation Day, a vast security campaign has seen activists arrested and ordered detained as well as a heavy security presence in the street.
The El-Sisi regime is reportedly receiving USD 20 billion from the Saudi monarchy in return for giving up the sovereignty of the two strategic islands.
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.
Israeli regime’s war minister Moshe Ya’alon indicated that the Tel Aviv regime approved the deal was struck under the condition that the Saudis agree to allow freedom of shipping through the straits.
