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Some sources report that many beaches on the island are mined.<ref>http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/tiran-island.htm Observation Post 3-11, Tiran Island</ref> |
Some sources report that many beaches on the island are mined.<ref>http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/tiran-island.htm Observation Post 3-11, Tiran Island</ref> |
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"On 9 April 2016, the regime of General Sissi and in exchange of Saudi financial handouts (Colloquially referred to in the past as 'Rice' by the military's Coup leader General Al Sissi, in an embarrassing audio tape recordings leaked of him, while mocking and lamenting the Gulf nations riches in the backdrop of Egypt's empty coffers), sold the Egyptian islands of Tiran and Sanafir, and attempting to legitimize the deal by claiming both islands fell within the territorial waters of Saudi Arabia - flying in the face of the fact that those islands were within Egyptian sovereignty since before the creation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and in accordance to the international boundaries demarcated by the Ottoman Empire, the sovereign power of control of the territories now known as Saudi Arabia, and the Egyptian nominally vassal Ottoman state yet under British occupation at the time. Ottoman maps prior to World war I, have recognized the Islands along with other possessions in the same region as part of the vassal Ottoman state of Egypt. The sale however still needs to be ratified by the Egyptian Parliament, whose legitimacy has been called into question, given the process of it's assembly under a military coup regime that toppled the first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi and his government, as well as the dissolution of legitimate Parliament that passed democratic muster. |
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On 9 April 2016, the Egyptian government declared<ref>http://egyptianstreets.com/2016/04/09/egypt-declares-islands-of-sanafir-and-tiran-as-saudi-arabian-territory/</ref> 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. The agreement needs to be ratified by Egypt's Parliament. |
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== Iotabe == |
== Iotabe == |
Revision as of 07:11, 10 April 2016
Other names | Yotvat (Hebrew) |
---|---|
Geography | |
Location | Red Sea |
Coordinates | 27°57′N 34°33′E / 27.950°N 34.550°E |
Administration | |
Egypt | |
Demographics | |
Population | Uninhabited |
Tiran (Arabic: جزيرة تيران Jazīrat Tīrān,[1] aka Jezîret Tīrān[2] and Yotvat Island,[3][4] is an Egyptian island according to the international border demarcated in 1906 between Britain and the Ottoman Empire. The island is also claimed by Saudi Arabia.[5] It 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 regime of General Sissi and in exchange of Saudi financial handouts (Colloquially referred to in the past as 'Rice' by the military's Coup leader General Al Sissi, in an embarrassing audio tape recordings leaked of him, while mocking and lamenting the Gulf nations riches in the backdrop of Egypt's empty coffers), sold the Egyptian islands of Tiran and Sanafir, and attempting to legitimize the deal by claiming both islands fell within the territorial waters of Saudi Arabia - flying in the face of the fact that those islands were within Egyptian sovereignty since before the creation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and in accordance to the international boundaries demarcated by the Ottoman Empire, the sovereign power of control of the territories now known as Saudi Arabia, and the Egyptian nominally vassal Ottoman state yet under British occupation at the time. Ottoman maps prior to World war I, have recognized the Islands along with other possessions in the same region as part of the vassal Ottoman state of Egypt. The sale however still needs to be ratified by the Egyptian Parliament, whose legitimacy has been called into question, given the process of it's assembly under a military coup regime that toppled the first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi and his government, as well as the dissolution of legitimate Parliament that passed democratic muster.
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.[8][9][10]
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.[8][11]
There is no mention of Iotape in accounts of the Islamic conquests, suggesting that by then the island was uninhabited.[8]
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.[12]
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.[13]
Modern History
In 1840 the Convention_of_London_(1840) 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 1967, Tiran Island was captured by Israeli troops during the Six Day War and remained under Israeli control until 1982. 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.[14]
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: Saudi Arabia". 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.)
- ^ CIA - The World Factbook
- ^ 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 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.
- ^ Dean Rusk (US Secretary of State) to the US Embassy in Israel, Jan. 17, 1968
External links
- Tiran dive sites
- Observation Post 3-11, Tiran Island, GlobalSecurity.org
- BirdLife Factsheet - Tiran Island
- Tiran Island, Tourist info
- Information about Tiran Island