Remote-controlled cameras will take over responsibility from U.S.-led peacekeepers for ensuring international shipping retains freedom of access to the Gulf of Aqaba.
According to Reuters, Tiran island, which lies in the straits of the same name at the mouth of the gulf, was handed to Saudi Arabia from Egypt along with next-door Sanafir island in 2017.
During a visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia, U.S. President Joe Biden announced that the tiny Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) contingent on Tiran would depart.
The MFO monitors a 1979 U.S.-brokered peace accord between Egypt and Israel, which deployed peacekeepers across the demilitarized Sinai and – to ensure free movement in and out of the Gulf of Aqaba – atop Tiran.
However, an official from one of the countries told Reuters that “the peacekeepers will be replaced by a camera-based system.” Namely, cameras that are already in place at an MFO base in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, 4 km (2.5 miles) across the Straits of Tiran from the now Saudi-held islands, would be upgraded for the task.
A person in Washington familiar with the matter said the agreement called for cameras to be placed at the contingent’s existing facilities, leaving open the possibility of both Sharm el-Sheikh and Tiran as placement sites.
