Technical note: Islands Iran claims Israel controls actually under Egyptian
control
Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA 28 December 2014
Over the years Iranian news agency have repeatedly distributed items
claiming that the Saudis are allowing Israel to use two of their islands
located in the Red Sea - Tiran and Sanafir.

In truth, Tiran and Sanafir are under Egyptian control. They are part of a
nature reserve. In fact, plans to build a bridge linking Egypt with Saudi
Arabia passing Tiran have come up several times. Israel has opposed these
plan out of security concerns and environmentalists have opposed the plans
as well.

It remains unclear why Iran chose to raise this story again at this
particular time.
=========================


Sinai bridge project puts Red Sea ecosystem at risk, say experts
Egypt Independent Fri, 23/03/2012 - 16:20
http://www.egyptindependent.com//news/sinai-bridge-project-puts-red-sea-ecosystem-risk-say-experts
[Map in article:
http://bit.ly/1xaFPAM ]

The proposed causeway linking Saudi Arabia to Egypt could seriously damage
the Red Sea’s marine life and disrupt communities in South Sinai, say
environmental experts, who are calling for an independent body to conduct an
environmental impact assessment before the project goes ahead.

While the project is hailed as a much-needed cash injection for Egypt’s
struggling economy, the environmental cost could be high.

Earlier this month, there were conflicting reports in local media that Egypt
and Saudi Arabia’s governments were finally moving ahead on a project to
build one of the world’s largest bridges over the Red Sea, connecting the
Sinai Peninsula with Saudi Arabia. While the bridge would offer the tens of
thousands of yearly pilgrims to Saudi Arabia a faster, simpler way to
travel, it may also have huge consequences for the Red Sea’s ecosystem.

According to Christian Voolstra, the head of coral reef genomics at the Red
Sea Research Center at the King Abdullah University of Science and
Technology, sediments from construction, or drilling in the sea flow, could
impact water quality, which would in turn affect the coral reefs and
seagrass bed. Dust, littering, smog, noise and traffic pollution, as well as
an increased risk of accidents or spills, all threaten the ecosystem.

For Voolstra, any damage to the coral reefs is likely to result in a general
decline in marine life. Sea mammals may avoid the area due to noise
pollution.

According to Al-Masry Al-Youm, the Transportation Ministry plans to conduct
technical studies on the causeway, which may serve almost a million
passengers and pilgrims annually. The report quotes an unnamed ministry
source as saying that an additional 100,000 vehicles are likely to cross the
bridge each year.

While the exact placement of the bridge remains unclear, it’s likely that
the project will pass through three protected islands, including Tiran
Island, and meet the shore at the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh in South
Sinai. Tiran, a protected island that acts as a breeding ground for birds
and sea turtles, is surrounded by coral reefs and often hosts a population
of the threatened dugong, a marine mammal similar to a manatee.

“The island won’t be an island; it will be a land connection and some bird
species breeding will be disturbed. Services, such as gas stations, will be
built and you basically lose one of the lands that is an important breeding
site for seabirds,” says Sherif Baha El Din, one of Egypt’s leading bird
experts and the president of Nature Conservation Egypt.

Egypt has a history of sacrificing natural beauty for the sake of economic
gains. For Baha El Din, Ain Sokhna's “haphazard planning” has meant that
city’s summer homes and resorts sit next to industrial factories.

With easier access to Saudi Arabia, it’s likely that industrial ventures
would see Sinai as a convenient location for exporting to the Gulf
Cooperation Council market.

“The industry doesn’t suffer, but the tourism next to it does. Setting Sharm
el-Sheikh with a backdrop of industrialization is going to be negative,” he
adds.

In the port city of Damietta, a fertilizer factory was temporarily shut down
earlier this year after protesters claimed that pollution from the plant,
which sits only a couple hundred meters from a middle-class neighborhood and
schools, has devastated local fish stocks and agriculture. Critics say
residents were not consulted about the construction of the factory, which
was built in 2008 by the state-owned Misr Oil Processing Company (MOPCO) and
Agrium, a Canadian fertilizer company.

For the project to be successful, Baha El Din says, the government must have
the local population on board. While the causeway may bring more tourists to
Sinai from Saudi Arabia, Baha El Din is quick to point out that the bridge
is likely to harm the natural beauty that draws millions to Sinai each year.

“These [long-term] impacts are unknown, and could be quite substantial,”
says Baha El Din. “It goes beyond the actual bridge itself.”

According to the conservationist, a large-scale project could drastically
alter the governorate, and the demands on certain resources.

“For example, Saudi Arabia could be interested in the extraction of marble,
and while in the Sinai it’s a free-for-all ― easy access, cut up the Sinai
and ship it over to the other side,” he says. “Loose regulations on one side
and more strict regulations on the other could create an imbalance or abuse
of natural resources.”

According to Baha El Din, Egypt has environmental protection laws that are
often poorly enforced.

He is quick not to dismiss the project as a “disaster” but insists the
present environmental impact assessments are merely rubber stamps on
large-scale projects.

For Voolstra, it’s important that an independent organization conducts an
environmental impact assessment, as well as set up parameters of what is the
minimum amount of protection, or the maximum amount of impact a project can
have to “avoid irreversible change.” He adds that any environmental
protection measures should be considered within the context of the overall
cost of the project.

“Furthermore, they should assess the costs if no actions to preserve
environment are taken,” he says. “Usually it costs a hundred times more to
restore than to preserve.”



==================
Saudis remain tight-lipped on Israel-occupied islands
The area marked with red square shows islands of Tirana and Sanafir.
PRESS TV (Teheran) Sat Dec 27, 2014 7:4PM GMT
http://presstv.com/detail/2014/12/27/392080/saudis-remain-tightlipped-on-islands/

Saudi Arabia and Western governments have for decades remained silent on the
occupation of Saudi islands by Israel, Press TV reports.

Many wonder where these islands are and why Saudi Arabia never tries to
regain its sovereignty over them.

The latest initiative to end the Arab-Israeli conflict was proposed by King
Abdullah during an Arab League conference in 2002. But even then, the case
of the two Saudi islands of Tiran and Sanafir was not brought up.

Tiran and Sanafir islands, with respective areas of 80 and 33 sq kilometers,
are located at the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba, east of the Saudi
territory.

They belonged to Saudi Arabia until 1967 when King Faisal gave control of
the islands to Egypt to prevent Israel from sending its ships to Eilat
station during the Six-Day war. The islands were then occupied by Israel.

Following the war, when Egypt’s Anwar Sadat signed a peace treaty with
Israel in 1978, he refused to mention the status of the islands as part of
the agreement, saying they belonged to Saudi Arabia. But interestingly,
Riyadh has not commented on the status of the islands since.

Some say the islands are just too small for Saudi Arabia to raise a claim
on, but some argue that it is not the case as Saudis have fought with Yemen
over the control of Hanish Islands that are approximately the same size.

The islands of Tiran and Sanafir are strategically very important as the
control over them effectively means the control over the entrance to Gulf of
Aqaba and this is Israel’s only way to the Red Sea.

MS/KA/SS