Saudi Arabia Plans to Open Red Sea Islands to ‘Israeli’ Tourists

By Staff, Agencies

‘Israeli’ news outlet Globes reported on Monday that Saudi Arabia is planning to make the Red Sea islands accessible to Zionist tourists.

Sources familiar with the matter told the news agency that Saudi Arabia will soon permit ‘Israeli’ tourists to obtain visas to visit the islands of Tiran and Sanafir which will have hotels and clubs available.

Although two islands were purchased from Egypt in 2016, Saudi Arabia is planning to build a bridge linking the islands to the African nation.

The island of Tiran has been demilitarized as per the 1979 Egyptian-‘Israeli’ normalization agreement, yet it holds significant strategic importance as it engulfs the passage into the Red Sea up to "Eilat," southern occupied Palestine, which is the ‘Israeli’ entity’s economic and trade hub, in addition to the port of Aqaba in Jordan.

Despite a deal reached in 2016, Egypt delayed the implementation of the agreement, likely because it wanted to gain leverage with the US over reductions of US military aid to Egypt.

As per the 2016 agreement, a US-led multinational force of observers remained present in Tiran for years until it was required to leave the islands by the end of December 2022.

The report stated that the presence of US forces was intended to secure the Zionist regime’s marine traffic on trade routes in case Saudi Arabia gained control of the exit from the Gulf of "Eilat." 

This issue was raised in discussions with US President Joe Biden when he visited the region last summer.

After Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got re-elected last December, talks resumed regarding the advantages of ‘Israeli’ tourists, the report stated.

"At this stage, a solution is emerging that will leave Egypt with a vestige of sovereignty, thus achieving two goals: firstly, Egypt will have a veto on what happens on the islands; secondly, maintaining the peace agreement and giving ‘Israelis’ the opportunity to vacation on the islands," the report added.

Regarding prospects of an eventual ‘peace’ with Saudi Arabia, sources told the news outlet that granting access to ‘Israeli’ tourists to the Tiran and Sanafir islands effectively shows Saudi Arabia's desire to promote steps to further normalization.

"It will be at a slow pace, with more additional steps that will bring the countries closer together, but the real breakthrough is not here yet. Things need to calm down a bit, we'll see where the Netanyahu government is headed, but in the end it's in the interest of all the countries involved to reach a full agreement," sources told the Globes.