Disputed island Other names: Yotvat (Hebrew) |
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Map of Tiran and Sanafir Islands | |
Geography | |
Location | Red Sea |
Coordinates | 27°57′N 34°33′E / 27.950°N 34.550°ECoordinates: 27°57′N 34°33′E / 27.950°N 34.550°E |
Total islands | 1 |
Area | 80 square kilometres (31 sq mi) |
Administered by | |
Egypt | |
Claimed by | |
Saudi Arabia | |
Demographics | |
Population | Uninhabited |
Tiran (Arabic: جزيرة تيران Jazīrat Tīrān,[1] aka Jezîret Tīrān[2] and Yotvat Island,[3][4] is an island[5] currently administered by Egypt. The island is located at the entrance of the Straits of Tiran, which separates the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aqaba. It has an area of about 80 square kilometres (31 square miles). It is part of the Ras Muhammad National Park. The Straits of Tiran is Israel's only access from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Red Sea, and Egypt's blockade of the Straits of Tiran on 22 May 1967 was the casus belli for Israel in the Six Day War.[6]
Tiran Island is of strategic significance in the area, as it forms the narrowest section of the Straits of Tiran, which is an important sea passage to the major ports of Aqaba in Jordan and Eilat in Israel. Israel briefly took over Tiran Island during the Suez Crisis and again from 1967 to 1982 following the Six Day War. The island is currently inhabited only by military personnel from Egypt and the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO).
Chisholm Point is a cape of Tiran Island.
Some sources report that many beaches on the island are mined.[7]
On 9 April 2016, the Egyptian government declared that Tiran and Sanafir Island fall within the territorial waters of Saudi Arabia as codified in the maritime border agreement signed with the government of Saudi Arabia on the previous day.[8] The agreement needs to be ratified by Egypt's Parliament.[9][8]
Contents
Ancient history - Iotabe
Tiran may be the island that Procopius called Iotabe (in Greek Ἰωτάβη), which was an important toll station for shipping in the area, but other islands in the Gulf of Aqaba have been proposed as alternative identifications. In 473 a Saracen named Amorkesos captured the island and appropriated the revenues, but the Byzantine Empire retook it 25 years later, granting its inhabitants autonomy, subject to payment of taxes on goods exported to India. Around 534, the Byzantines had to retake it again from a group whom Choricius of Gaza called an unholy race, and whom some scholars suppose to have been the Jewish inhabitants who had refused to pay the taxes.[10][11][12]
The earliest and latest dates mentioned in relation to Iotabe are given in relation to the participation of bishops of the island in the church councils: Macarius in the Council of Chalcedon in 451 (in whose acts the diocese is listed as belonging to the Roman province of Palaestina Tertia), and Anastasius in a synod held at Jerusalem in 536.[10][13]
There is no mention of Iotape in accounts of the Islamic conquests, suggesting that by then the island was uninhabited.[10]
Since it is no longer a residential bishopric, Iotape, in its Latin form called Iotapa in Palaestina, is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.[14]
The reference by Procopius to an autonomous Jewish community on the island of Iotabe until the 6th century figured in Israeli rhetoric during the Suez crisis and during and immediately after the Six Day War.[15]
Modern history
In 1840, the Convention of London set the island as an Egyptian territory. The island remained an Egyptian territory after the reduction in the eastern borders of Egypt in 1906 as agreed between Britain and the Ottoman Empire.
In world war II, the Egyptian forces on Tiran and Sinafir islands were part of the Egyptian troops protecting Suez canal, according to Egypt's representative at the 659th UN security council meeting on 15th February 1954:[16]
60. A disparaging reference has been made in this Council to Egyptians being on the two is1ands of Tiran and Sinafir on the Red Sea, islands which had been occupied by Egyptians long hefore the Israel armed forces advanced ta the Gulf of Aqaba a few days after the signature of the Egyptian-Israel General·Armistice Agreement. Here I feel bound to state that the records of the Second World War contain official evidence that Egyptian units had been using these two islands as part of the Egyptian defensive system during that war. Egyptian detachments on these two islands co-operated with the Egyptian air force and the naval units entrusted at the time with the task of protecting Allied shipping in the Red Sea against submarine attack. While Egyptian air force units were covering the coast for Allied shipping in the Mediterranean, a force of 8,000 Egyptian troops undertook the defence of the entire length of the Suez Canal and its ports against continuous, hostile air attacks throughout the Second World War.
In the same meeting, Egypt's representative considered Tiran and Sinafir islands an integral part of the territory of Egypt since they have been under Egypt's administration since 1906:[17]
132. The Israel representative spoke to us of the islands situated at the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba. He alleged that these islands had been suddenly occupied by Egypt. He read out a dec1aration of the Egyptian Government transmitted in a letter addressed to the United States Embassy at Cairo. Those islands were not suddenly occupied; they were occupied, may I point out, in 1906. At that time it had been found necessary to delimit the frontiers between Egypt and the Ottoman Empire. With a view to this delimitation, Egypt, for technical reasons, proceeded to occupy the two islands. The occupation was the subject of discussions, exchanges of views and even letters between the Ottoman Empire and the Khedivial Government of Egypt. Consequently, there was no surprise. The islands have in fact been occupied since 1906, and it is an established fact that from that time on they have been under Egyptian administration.
133. While it is true that after relations between Egypt and the Ottoman Empire were broken off these islands became exclusively Egyptian, and that another State was able to initiate discussions concerning the occupation of the two islands; the fact is that that State was Saudi Arabia. An agreement was concluded between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, confirming what l would call, not the annexation, but the occupation of these islands and, what is more important, the recognition that they form an integral part of the territory of Egypt.
In 1967, Tiran Island was captured by Israeli troops during the Six Day War. In January 1968, the US government stood behind a failed attempt to induce Israeli withdrawal from that island as an opening move to a larger peace process.[18]
Tiran was included as part of the 1979 peace treaty signed by Egypt and Israel to guarantee freedom of Israeli shipping through the Straits of Tiran.[19] Tiran remained under Israeli control until 1982. The treaty is impacted by the agreement by Egypt to return the island to Saudi Arabia. To facilitate the transition, crown prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud, the Saudi Defense Minister sent a letter to Egypt's Prime Minister Sherif Ismail stipulating that Saudi Arabia shall be bound by all articles of the 1979 peace treaty. The letter has been forwarded to Israel for review, approval and appropriate modifications to the peace treaty.[20] Israel indicated that it that it was notified in advance of the proposed transfer of the island and does not view it as adversly impacting its peace treaty with Egypt.[21][22]
Transport
The proposed Saudi-Egypt Causeway would pass through Tiran Island.
See also
Notes
- ^ "Jazīrat Tīrān: Egypt". Geographical Names. Retrieved 2011-03-04.
- ^ "Jezîret Tīrān: Israel". Geographical Names. Retrieved 2011-03-04.
- ^ "Yotvat Island: Egypt". Geographical Names. Retrieved 2011-03-04.
- ^ Shindler, Colin (2013). A History of Modern Israel (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 122. ISBN 978-1-10702862-3. Retrieved 7 August 2014.)
- ^ Youm7.com: الحكومة تنشر مستندات تكشف حقيقة تبعية جزيرتى تيران وصنافير للسعودية
- ^ Robert Priewasser, Tiran Island and Straits of Tiran. Unexplained Sovereignty over an Island in the Context of the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Saarbrücken: Akademikerverlag, 2013)
- ^ http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/tiran-island.htm Observation Post 3-11, Tiran Island
- ^ a b http://egyptianstreets.com/2016/04/09/egypt-declares-islands-of-sanafir-and-tiran-as-saudi-arabian-territory/
- ^ http://www.bbc.com/arabic/middleeast/2016/04/160410_egypt_saudi_islands
- ^ a b c Walter David Ward, From Provincia Arabia to Palaestina Tertia (ProQuest 2008 ISBN 978-1-10905356-2), pp. 162–168
- ^ Irfan Shahîd, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Volume 1 (Dumbarton Oaks 1995 ISBN 978-0-88402214-5), p. 184
- ^ Procopius, History of the Wars I.xix.4
- ^ Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 454
- ^ Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 911
- ^ Howard Grief. The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel Under International Law. pp. 233–234.
- ^ http://www.un.org/es/comun/docs/index.asp?symbol=S/PV.659&Lang=E Security council 659th meeting records p. 10
- ^ http://www.un.org/es/comun/docs/index.asp?symbol=S/PV.659&Lang=E Security council 659th meeting records p. 25
- ^ Dean Rusk (US Secretary of State) to the US Embassy in Israel, Jan. 17, 1968
- ^ http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/peace/guide/pages/israel-egypt%20peace%20treaty.aspx
- ^ http://www.ahram.org.eg/NewsQ/495194.aspx
- ^ http://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-saudi-islands-israel-idUSKCN0X9106
- ^ http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/1.713870
External links
- Observation Post 3-11, Tiran Island, GlobalSecurity.org
- BirdLife Factsheet - Tiran Island
- Tiran Island, Tourist info
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