Western nations condemn Russia over Ukraine at G20 Indonesia talks

Western finance chiefs condemned Moscow's invasion of Ukraine at G20 talks in

Indonesia Friday, accusing Russia of sending a "shockwave" through the world
economy and its technocrats of complicity in the war's alleged atrocities.
The two-day meeting on the island of Bali began under the shadow of a Russian
military assault that has roiled markets, spiked food prices and stoked breakneck
inflation, a week after Moscow's top diplomat walked out of talks with the forum's
foreign ministers.
"Russia is solely responsible for negative spillovers to the global economy," US
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the Russian delegation in the opening session,
according to a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"Russia's officials should recognise that they are adding to the horrific
consequences of this war through their continued support of the Putin regime. You
share responsibility for the innocent lives lost," Yellen added, according to the
official.
The official did not comment on whether the Russian delegation responded. Russian
officials did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
Russia calls its invasion of Ukraine a "special military operation" and blames
subsequent Western sanctions for blocked food shipments and rising energy prices.
"Russia tried to say that the world economic situation had nothing to do with the
war," a French delegation source told AFP.
Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers condemned Russia's "immoral transgression"
against Ukraine, saying that Moscow must take the blame for the impacts on the
global economy caused by the war.
"Russia's unjust actions have had terrible human cost but they've also increased
global uncertainty," Chalmers said, according to a transcript. "Russia must take
full responsibility."
Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told Russia's delegation they were
responsible for "war crimes" in Ukraine because of their support for the invasion,
a Canadian official said.
"It is not only generals who commit war crimes, it is the economic technocrats who
allow the war to happen and to continue," said Freeland, according to the official.
Both Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy
Marchenko participated virtually in the meeting.
Moscow sent Russian Deputy Finance Minister Timur Maksimov to attend the talks in
person. He was in the room as Western officials expressed their condemnation,
according to a source present at the talks.
Host and G20 chair Indonesia warned the finance chiefs that failure to tackle
energy and food crises would be catastrophic.
In her opening remarks, Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati called on
ministers to work together with a spirit of "cooperation" because "the world is
watching" for solutions.
"The cost of our failure is more than we can afford," she told delegates. "The
humanitarian consequences for the world and for many low-income countries would be
catastrophic."

- 'Weaponising' food -
The meeting has largely focused on the food and energy crises that are weighing on
an already brittle global recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
"(Russian President Vladimir) Putin's actions including the destruction of
agricultural facilities, theft of grain and farm equipment, and effective blockade
of Black Sea ports amounts to using food as a weapon of war," Yellen said in an
afternoon seminar.
In another session, she said Russia's "unjustified war" has sent a "shockwave"
through the global economy.
Indrawati said members had "identified the urgent need for the G20 to take concrete
steps" to address food insecurity and to help countries in need.
Yellen has pressed G20 allies for a price cap on Russian oil to choke off Putin's
war chest and pressure Moscow to end its invasion while bringing down energy costs.
In April, the US treasury secretary led a multinational walkout of finance
officials as Russian delegates spoke at a G20 meeting in Washington, but there was
no such action on Friday.
There is unlikely to be a final communique issued when talks end on Saturday
because of the disagreements with Russia.

- 'Act together' -
G20 chair Indonesia -- which pursues a neutral foreign policy -- refrained from
disinviting Russia despite Western pressure.
Chinese Finance Minister Liu Kun, Britain's new Finance Minister Nadhim Zahawi and
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde attended the meeting virtually.
World Bank chief executive David Malpass did not attend, while International
Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva appeared in person after saying Wednesday
that the global economic outlook had "darkened significantly" because of Moscow's
invasion.
The meeting is a prelude to the leaders' summit on the Indonesian island in
November that was meant to focus on the global recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Other issues being tackled by the ministers included digital financial inclusion --
with more than a billion of the world's population still without access to a bank
account -- and the deadline for an international tax rules overhaul. afp

Iraqi cleric shows power as thousands attend mass prayer

BAGHDAD: Tens of thousands of Iraqis attended a mass prayer in a Baghdad suburb on

Friday called for by an influential Shiite cleric, sparking fears of instability
amid a deepening political crisis that has followed the country's national
elections.
Followers of Moqtada al-Sadr arrived in the capital from across the country,
filling up Sadr City's al-Falah Street - the main thoroughfare that cuts across the
populist figure's key bastion of support. Worshippers carried Iraqi flags and wore
white shrouds, typically donned by his supporters.
The event was considered a show of force from the cleric who's party won the
highest number of seats in the October national elections but withdrew after
failing to form a government with Sunni and Kurdish allies in Iraq's cutthroat
power-sharing system.
Followers stood under the scorching sun and chanted religious slogans. Al-Sadr's
representative, Sheikh Mahmoud al-Jiyashi, read aloud a speech from the cleric
during the service that reiterated calls to disband armed groups - an indirect
reference to Iran-backed Iraqi militia groups affiliated with his rivals.
Ahmad Kadhim, 17, was among the worshippers. He said he was disappointed al-Sadr
himself did not appear at the service. "I would have been happy just to see him,
but this wish did not come true," he said.
By capitalizing on fears that the mass prayer could turn into protests, al-Sadr
sent a potent message of his authority and power. The event was among the largest
gatherings of al-Sadr´s followers after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam
Hussein in 2003. But more importantly, it carried a message to al-Sadr´s political
rivals of his ability to mobilize the Iraqi street and destabilize the country.
In a tweet on Thursday ahead of the prayer, al-Sadr said the choice to protest was
up to his followers.
"I support them if they want to stand up for reform," he wrote. Many considered
that a veiled threat to his rivals.
Al-Sadr, who won the most seats in the October national elections, withdrew from
the government formation last month, following eight months of stalemate. In line
with his orders, the members of his parliamentary bloc resigned.
Al-Sadr had sought to form a government with Sunni and Kurdish allies that excluded
Iran-backed parties lead by his long-time rival, former Prime Minister Nouri al-
Maliki.
The surprise move shocked his opponents and his supporters alike, sparking fears of
more unrest and street protests if al-Maliki forged ahead with government formation
plans that excluded al-Sadr.
If the political crisis extends to August, it will be the longest that Iraq has
gone without a government since elections.
The threat of mass demonstrations is a well established tactic by al-Sadr that has
proven successful in the past. In 2016, al-Sadr's supporters repeatedly the Green
Zone, a heavily fortified area housing Iraq's government buildings and foreign
embassies, even storming parliament complex and attacking officials.
The prayer service is also an ode to al-Sadr's father, cleric Muhammad Sadiq al-
Sadr, from whom he derives much of his support base. The elder al-Sadr had held
Friday prayer service in defiance of the Saddam regime in the 1990s. He was was
assassinated in 1999. ap

UN to vote on choking off small arms from gangs in Haiti

UNITED NATIONS: The U.N. Security Council scheduled a vote Friday on a resolution
that calls on all countries to stop the transfer of small arms, light weapons and
ammunition to any party supporting gang violence and criminal activity in Haiti,
which has seen an upsurge in bloodshed and kidnappings.
The draft by the United States and Mexico does not include an arms embargo as China
sought. Other council members said an embargo would be unenforceable.
The back and forth came in negotiations over a resolution to extend the mandate for
the U.N. political mission in Haiti. The council's previous authorization for the
mission expires Friday.
The U.S.-Mexico draft resolution, put in final form late Thursday, would express
the council's readiness to impose sanctions that could include travel bans and
assets freezes "as necessary" on individuals engaged in or supporting gang
violence, criminal activity or human rights violations in Haiti. That language is
weaker than China's proposal, which included a time frame.
The draft also makes no mention of China's call for Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres to discuss with various parties possibly establishing a regional police
unit to help Haitian police tackle gang violence. Instead, the U.S.-Mexico draft
would ask Guterres to consult with Haiti's government, "relevant countries" and
regional organizations on "possible options to combat high levels of gang violence"
and to submit a report by Oct. 15.
With the end of the mandate for the U.N. political mission looming, the 15 council
members wrangled this week over wording for the new resolution needed to extend the
mission. The U.S. and Mexico drew up the original proposal, and China offered
revisions Thursday supported by its ally Russia.
Among China's proposals was for Guterres to discuss the possibility of "deploying a
multinational police unit" to Haiti. China said it coould operate in close
coordination with the U.N. political mission "to support the Haitian police´s
efforts in combating gang violence in order to establish and maintain public safety
and law and order and to promote and protect human rights."
The original U.S.-Mexico draft called for beefing up the U.N. mission to include up
to 42 police and corrections department advisers, led by a U.N. police
commissioner, and staff to ensure that sexual and gender-based violence are
addressed.
When the current resolution extending the U.N. mission was adopted in October,
Haiti had been contending with the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse last
July, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that killed over 2,200 people in August, and
escalating gang-related killings, kidnappings and turf wars.
A year after Moïse's assassination, gang violence is even worse, and Haiti has gone
into a freefall that has seen the economy tumble and many Haitians flee the country
to escape the turmoil. At the same time, attempts to form a coalition government
have faltered, and efforts to hold general elections have stalled.
This week, officials in Haiti´s capital reported that dozens of people had died as
a result of days of fighting between rival gangs in the violent Cite Soleil
neighborhood. Doctors Without Borders said thousands of people were trapped in the
district without drinking water, food and medical care.
A spokesperson for China´s U.N. Mission said Thursay that an embargo on weapons for
criminal gangs was "the minimum" that the council should do in response to the
appalling situation in Haiti.
"Anything falls short of that will not only disappoint the Haitian people, but also
means a lost opportunity for the Security Council," said the spokesperson, who
commented only on condition of anonymity.
A spokesman for Russia´s U.N. Mission said that "taking into account the situation
in Haiti, we believe we need to have an opportunity to make changes to the mandate
of the mission."
The United Nations has been involved in Haiti on and off since 1990, and the last
U.N. peacekeeping mission was in the country from 2004 until October 2017. The
political mission now there advises Haiti´s government on "promoting and
strengthening political stability and good governance," including the implementing
the rule of law, inclusive national dialogue and protecting and protection of human
rights. ap

German climate activists aim to stir friction with blockades

BERLIN: "It´s absolutely crazy to stick yourself to the road with superglue,"
admits Lina Schinkoethe.
And yet, the 19-year-old recently landed in jail for doing just that, in protest at
what she believes is the German government's failure to act against climate change.
Schinkoethe is part of a group called Uprising of the Last Generation that claims
the world has only a few years left to turn the wheel around and avoid catastrophic
levels of global warming.
Like-minded activists elsewhere in Europe have interrupted major sporting events
such as the Tour de France and the Formula One Grand Prix in Silverstone in recent
weeks, while others glued themselves to the frame of a painting at London´s Royal
Academy of Arts Tuesday. But Schinkoethe's group has mainly targeted ordinary
commuters in cities such as Berlin who, on any given day this summer, might find
themselves in an hours-long tailback caused by a handful of activists gluing
themselves to the asphalt.
Their actions have prompted outrage and threats from inconvenienced motorists.
Tabloid media and some politicians have accused them of sowing chaos and harming
ordinary folk just trying to go about their business. Some have branded them
dangerous radicals.
Schinkoethe says the escalation in tactics is justified.
"If we wanted people to like us then we´d do something else but we´ve tried
everything else," she told The Associated Press. "We´ve asked nicely. We´ve
demonstrated calmly."
She recalls joining the Fridays for Future protests led by Swedish activist Greta
Thunberg which saw hundreds of thousands of students worldwide skip school and
rally for a better world.
"I really hoped something would change, that politicians would react and finally
take us and the science of climate change seriously," she said. "But we're still
heading for a world that´s 3 to 4 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 7.2 Fahrenheit) warmer."
Such a rise in global temperatures is more than twice the 1.5-C (2.7-F) limit
countries agreed to in the 2015 Paris climate accord. While progress has been made
in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, experts agree the goal is still far out of
reach.
Scientists agree that the world has no time to waste in cutting emissions, but have
tried to counter 'doomism' by arguing that the world isn´t heading for one single
cliff edge so much as a long, steep slope with several precipitous drops.
"Each tenth of a degree matters," said Ricarda Winkelmann, a scientist at the
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research near Berlin.
"If we really start acting now and reduce global greenhouse gas emissions to net
zero by 2050, chances are that we can limit some of the most severe climate
impacts," she said.
Such messages are lost on many of those caught up in the blockades.
At two protests witnessed by The AP in June and July, several truckers got out of
their cabs to berate the activists. One physically hauled two protesters off the
road.
Other drivers, some of whom weren't affected by the blockade, also hurled abuse at
the activists. A few expressed support for the climate cause but questioned the way
the protests were conducted.
"They need to find a different way to do this than to block other people," said one
driver on his way to work, who would only give his name as Stefan.
Berlin's mayor has called the street blockades "crimes," while the city's top
security official is demanding that prosecutors and courts mete out swift
convictions. So far, no cases have gone to trial.
Still, Schinkoethe believes she has no choice but to keep going.
"We need to generate friction, peaceful friction, so that there´s an honest debate
and we can act accordingly," she said.
That sentiment was echoed by Ernst Hoermann, a retired railway engineer and
grandfather of eight who has been traveling to Berlin from Bavaria regularly to
take part in the protests.
"We basically have to cause a nuisance until it hurts," he said as a police officer
tried to unstick him from the road with the help of cooking oil.
Similar protests have resulted in weeks-long prison sentences in Britain, where the
government has sought court injunctions to preemptively stop road blockades by the
group Insulate Britain.
Hoermann, 72, said he isn't afraid of fines or the prospect of prison.
"Not compared to the fear I have for my children," he said.
Last Generation has recently tried to focus attention on Germany's plans to drill
for oil and gas in the North Sea.
Despite having the most ambitious climate target of any major industrialized
nation, Germany's center-left government is scrambling like other European
countries to replace its Russian energy imports and avoid painful fuel shortages in
the coming years.
Schinkoethe says the number of people participating in the group´s actions has
grown from 30 to 200 in six months, and argues that the blockades follow the
tradition of civil disobedience seen during the U.S. civil rights movement and the
fight for women's suffrage.
"What we´re doing is illegal," she said. "At the same time it´s legitimate."
Manuel Ostermann, a senior member of one of Germany´s police unions, accused the
group of committing crimes while portraying themselves as victims.
"Where the process of radicalization gets going, extremism isn´t far off," he wrote
on Twitter.
Members of Last Generation have tried to counter that, citing U.N. Secretary-
General Antonio Guterres who earlier this year said that "the truly dangerous
radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels."
"I´m going to keep going until the government locks me and the other activists up
for their peaceful protests, or gives in to our demands," said Schinkoethe. ap

Watchdog says Secret Service deleted Jan. 6 text messages

WASHINGTON: Secret Service agents deleted text messages sent and received around
the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol even after an inspector general
requested them as part of an investigation into the insurrection, the government
watchdog has found.
The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, in a letter
obtained by The Associated Press, said the messages between Jan. 5 and Jan. 6,
2021, were erased "as part of a device-replacement program." The erasure came after
the watchdog office requested records of electronic communications between the
agents as part of its probe into events surrounding the Jan. 6 attack, the letter
said.
Additionally, Homeland Security personnel were told they couldn't provide records
to the inspector general and any such records would first have to be reviewed by
DHS attorneys.
"This review led to a weeks-long delays in OIG obtaining records and created
confusion over whether all records had been produced," states the letter, which was
dated Wednesday and sent to leaders of the House and Senate Homeland Security
committees.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi objected to the letter Thursday night,
saying: "The insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages
following a request is false. In fact, the Secret Service has been fully
cooperating with the OIG in every respect - whether it be interviews, documents,
emails, or texts."
He said the Secret Service had started to reset its mobile devices to factory
settings in January 2021 "as part of a pre-planned, three-month system migration."
In that process, some data was lost.
The inspector general has first requested the electronic communications on Feb. 26,
"after the migration was well under way," Guglielmi said.
"The Secret Service notified DHS OIG of the loss of certain phones´ data, but
confirmed to OIG that none of the texts it was seeking had been lost in the
migration," he said.
The allegation that officials at the inspector general´s office were not given
timely access to the material because of a review by Homeland Security attorneys
had been raised by the inspector general before and is also not true, he said.
"DHS has repeatedly and publicly debunked this allegation, including in response to
OIG´s last two semi-annual reports to Congress," Guglielmi added.
The agency said it provided a substantial number of emails and chat messages that
included conversations and details related to Jan. 6 to the inspector general and
said text messages from the Capitol Police requesting assistance on Jan. 6 were
preserved and provided to the inspector general´s office.
The erasure of the messages is sure to raise new questions for the House panel
investigating the Jan. 6 attack, which has taken a renewed interest in the Secret
Service following the dramatic testimony of former White House aide Cassidy
Hutchinson about former President Donald Trump's actions the day of the
insurrection.
Hutchinson recalled being told about a confrontation between Trump and his Secret
Service detail as he angrily demanded to be driven to the Capitol, where his
supporters would later breach the building. She also recalled overhearing Trump
telling security officials to remove magnetometers for his rally on the Ellipse
even though some of his supporters were armed.
That account, however, was quickly disputed by those agents. Robert Engel, the
agent who was driving the presidential SUV, and Trump security official Tony Ornato
are willing to testify under oath that no agent was assaulted and Trump never
lunged for the steering wheel, a person familiar with the matter told the AP. The
person would not discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The erasure of the text messages was first reported by The Intercept. ap

Choppers and wheelbarrows: Kenyan vote race highlights inequality

Seven helicopters lift off one by one in a cloud of dust from a remote region of
western Kenya, blades spinning as an excited crowd below waves them away.
Raila Odinga -- the veteran opposition leader now backed by the ruling party in the
high-stakes elections on August 9 -- has just wrapped up a political rally attended
by thousands.
From the sleek choppers to convoys of luxury SUVs and trucks adorned with the faces
and party colours of the politicians running for office, elections in Kenya mean
money.
"You see these people flying all over with seven, 10 choppers... when they come,
they tell you that they are for common mwananchi (Swahili for common man),"
accountant Benard Ooko told AFP after Odinga landed at a rally in his lakeside
hometown of Bondo earlier this month.
"Common mwananchi walks barefoot, the common mwananchi doesn't have food to eat."
The high-rolling campaign blitz underscores the stark inequality in a country where
in 2020 four in every 10 people lived in poverty, according to a government report.
The disparity is feeding an atmosphere of unease as Kenya -- a nation of about 50
million people -- battles to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, aftershocks of
the grinding war in Ukraine and a biting drought.

- 'Hustlers' vs dynasties -
Deputy President William Ruto, Odinga's main rival for the top job, has come under
fire for using choppers to chase votes while giving his supporters wheelbarrows.
The wheelbarrow is the symbol of Ruto's United Democratic Alliance party, and its
wealthy 55-year-old leader has sought to portray himself as an advocate for the
"hustlers" in a country ruled by dynastic elites he says are out of touch with
ordinary people.
The showbiz doesn't come cheap.
Parliament in August 2021 rejected a proposal to cap presidential campaign spending
to the equivalent of $38 million per candidate. As a result, the spending remains
limitless.
It costs about $2,000 an hour to hire a three-seater helicopter -- that compares to
Kenya's minimum monthly wage of 15,120 shillings ($128).
There were 67 choppers registered to civilians in the country by the end of 2020,
former Kenya Civil Aviation Authority director general Gilbert Kibe told AFP.
Data from the South African Revenue Service however showed that Kenya imported 325
helicopters from that country alone in 2020.

- 'Deprivation and hopelessness' -

British charity Oxfam said in a report earlier this year that the two richest
Kenyans own more wealth than the bottom 30 percent of the population, or some 16.5
million people.
"The extreme inequality in Kenya of increasing wealth and opportunity concentration
and opulence, while millions of Kenyans are sinking more and more into undignifying
deprivation and hopelessness, is an unfortunate political choice," said Oxfam's
country director in Kenya, John Kitui.
"It is obscene, unethical and a form of social violence."
At least three in every 10 Kenyans live in extreme poverty, on less than $1.9 a
day, the World Bank said in April.
They are struggling to cope with spiralling costs of basic goods such as food and
fuel, while parts of the country are also suffering from a severe drought.
Inflation in the East African economic powerhouse jumped to a 58-month high of 7.9
percent in June, mainly as a result of skyrocketing food prices especially for
staples such as maize and cooking oil, according to official figures.

- 'It's all PR' -

Nevertheless, observers say the campaign showmanship can bag votes even from a
population ground down by the floundering economy.
Scenes of men clinging on treacherously to the landing gear as their favourite
politician's helicopter takes off have become commonplace, prompting the KCAA to
crack down on what it called "James Bond" antics.
"The typical voter is attracted to the rich politician," political analyst Nerima
Wako-Ojiwa told AFP.
But she said the huge wealth gap in multi-ethnic Kenya was not likely to influence
voters' choices in August.
"This election is going to be defined by tribe first, gender comes second, then age
comes third," she said.
Political analyst Joy Mdivo said however that choppers were "a necessity rather
than a luxury" as politicians crisscross the vast country, combing for votes in
remote villages far from the capital.
"Air travel is much safer than road, and as presidential candidates, their lives
are a matter of national interest," Mdivo told AFP, referring to the poor state of
Kenya's roads and the high number of fatal accidents.
But some voters are less than impressed.
All politicians are "cut from the same cloth" and will do little to change our
lives, said 22-year-old Halima Wanjiru, a first-time voter this year.
"It's all PR. Only their relatives benefit when they get to office."
With corruption endemic in Kenya, businessman Samuel Onyango Wala called for
investigators to check the candidates' campaign spending sprees.
"Where are they getting that money from? It's from the taxpayers," he said.
"They are looting the economy while the common mwananchi is really suffering down
here and we are not happy with that at all." afp

The Red Sea islands caught between Egypt, Saudi and Israel

As US President Joe Biden visits the Middle East this week, one issue on the table
will be the status of two small Red Sea islands that are uninhabited but of key
strategic value.
Resolving the tricky status that stems from their location and turbulent history
would help build trust between Israel and Saudi Arabia, two US allies now taking
gradual steps that Washington hopes could one day lead to diplomatic ties.
For now, the two barren desert islands -- Tiran and Sanafir -- are home only to
some soldiers of a decades-old multinational peacekeeping force, their waters
occasionally visited by divers for their coral reefs.
But the islands have been fought over in the past, thanks to their key location at
the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba, on which Jordan's only seaport of the same name,
and Israel's Eilat harbour are located.
Egypt ceded the islands, located east of its resort town Sharm El-Sheikh, to Saudi
Arabia in 2016. But the deal still requires Israel's green light, at a time when
the Jewish state and Saudi Arabia have no formal ties.
A senior Israeli official said late Thursday Israel would have "no objection" to
greenlighting Egypt handing over the islands to Saudi Arabia as a step towards any
normalisation of ties between Riyadh and the Jewish state.
The issue is set to be on the agenda Friday when Biden, after his Israel visit,
meets Gulf leaders in Jeddah for a conference where Egypt's President Abdel Fattah
al-Sisi is also expected.
Tiran -- which hosts a small airport for the peacekeepers -- measures about 61
square kilometres (24 square miles), while Sanafir, to the east, is only about half
that size.
The islands were under Egyptian sovereignty from 1950, but invaded by Israeli
troops during the 1956 Suez Crisis that came after Egyptian president Gamal Abdel
Nasser nationalised the canal that is key to trade between Europe and Asia.

- Deal in the making? -

Nasser's 1967 closure of the Strait of Tiran, which cut off maritime access to
Eilat and Aqaba, precipitated the Six Day War, after which Israel occupied the
Sinai Peninsula and the two small islands.
In 1979, the landmark Camp David peace agreement provided for Egypt to recover the
territories.
As part of the Sinai's demilitarisation, Cairo was not allowed to station troops on
the islands, where only peacekeepers were based for the so-called Multinational
Force and Observers.
In 2016 a Cairo-Riyadh agreement ceded the islands to Saudi Arabia in a
controversial decision that sparked nationalist protests in Egypt, which were
quickly stifled.
Critics accused Sisi of ceding the islands in return for Saudi aid and investment
largesse. The government argued the islands were originally Saudi but leased to
Egypt in the 1950s.
Egyptian courts handed down a series of contradictory rulings before the Supreme
Constitutional Court ruled in favour of the handover.
But because the issue is governed by the Camp David agreement, the status of the
islands has yet to be finalised, requiring Israel to ratify the transfer of
sovereignty.
It is this final hurdle that Biden could negotiate with Israeli, Saudi and Egyptian
leaders this week, observers say.
The Israeli press has reported that Riyadh has pledged to keep the islands
demilitarised, and to allow Israeli vessels to keep traversing the strait.
Experts have pointed to the significance of a potential deal as a step towards
official normalisation of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, who along with
the United States are fierce enemies of Iran. afp