CAIRO — The maritime border demarcation agreement under which Egypt ceded the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia has brought back to the surface the dispute between Egypt and Sudan over the Halayeb and Shalateen triangle. While Khartoum insists on international arbitration or peaceful negotiations to decide the fate of this disputed region along Egypt’s southern border, Cairo refuses to discuss the issue.
On April 17, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry issued a press release in which it called for direct negotiations with Egypt in a bid to resolve the dispute over the region, similarly to what happened with Saudi Arabia, or for international arbitration, as provided for in international law, similarly to how Egypt regained the town of Taba from Israel in 1989.