CAIRO — Egypt’s oldest secular university on Monday granted King Salman of Saudi Arabia an honorary doctorate for his “unique services” to Arabs and Muslims, the final function in a five-day visit clouded by opposition to Cairo’s intention to hand over control of two Red Sea islands to Riyadh.
In its citation, Cairo University said Salman was a “global and pivotal figure with massive influence in the Arab and International arenas” and praised his support for Egypt and the university.
Monday’s ceremony came a day after Salman, who ascended the throne in January last year, addressed the Egyptian parliament. The Saudi and Egyptian governments have also signed more than a dozen accords and memoranda that involved billions of dollars in Saudi aid and investment to Egypt.
One of the accords concerned Egypt’s intention to hand over control of the islands of Tiran and Sanafir at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba to Saudi Arabia. Activists took to the social media to voice their opposition to the deal, saying it was tantamount to a sell-off in return for aid.
Egypt’s government has gone to great lengths to counter the allegations, contending that Riyadh in 1950 asked Egypt to take charge of the islands’ security because it feared an attack by Israel. Officials have cited diplomatic correspondence dating back decades that shows Cairo acknowledging Saudi ownership of the islands.
“Egypt has not surrendered a single square inch of its territory under any condition,” the top state newspaper Al-Ahram said in its Monday editorial. “But it will be unreasonable to deny our brothers their right to holding on to their own territory when all documents prove their ownership.”
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said Cairo had never claimed sovereignty over the two islands. “Egyptian presence on the two islands does not mean we have sovereignty over them,” he told a TV interviewer late Sunday.
