In the popular movie "Wolf Warrior", there is such a sentence that has been engraved in the hearts of every Chinese son: "Those who offend me will be punished even if they are far away!" ”
National territorial security has always been the unshakable bottom line of a sovereign state, but in the Middle East, there is an island covering an area of 800,000 square kilometers, which has been "humbled by each other" by the two countries for 66 years, and neither country dares to include it in its own sphere of influence.
1. Strategic islands
The island, called Tiran, is nestled between Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Tiran Island is extremely arid, most of the area is an inhospitable desert, neither suitable for farming, nor special oil and mineral resources, therefore, from the perspective of soil conditions alone, Tiran Island does not have the value of competition, but such a small island, but just above the Red Sea.
The Red Sea, located between northeastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, is the world's most important oil shipping route, and to the north is a gulf called Aqaba, which is Jordan's only outlet to the sea, and an important sea route for Palestine and later the state-founded Israel.
Tiran, on the other hand, is located between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba.
Such a geographical location is destined to make Tiran Island "ill-fated", and the Suez Canal crisis and the third Middle East war, which have attracted much attention in modern times, were triggered by Tiran Island.
But the historical island of Tiran was not so bumpy at the beginning.
Before the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the island of Tiran was its territory, and Egypt and Saudi Arabia were only members of the unified empire.
Since the Industrial Revolution, imperialism has continued to expand, and Britain, as the number one power at this time, has been colonizing all over the world, and the Suez Canal region, located between Asia and Africa, is naturally coveted by the British Empire.
As the Ottoman Empire declined, Britain seized Egypt and the island of Tiran, and soon after, World War I broke out.
At the end of the five-year war, Britain won a nominal victory, but its domestic economy and military strength were much lower than before, and the crown of the "empire on which the sun never sets" gradually became cloudy.
As the revolt of the colonies intensified, a large number of heroic national armed forces emerged in Egypt to resist the oppression of the British colonists.
In 1922, Egypt declared independence, and Britain generously recognized Egypt's status as an independent and sovereign state, but in reality, it clinged to the military control of Tiran Island and secretly waited for the right moment to stir up the situation in the Middle East.
Second, the hegemon is a hindrance
After Egypt became independent, it also communicated with the British about the sovereignty of Tiran Island, but at that time, the international order followed only four words: the law of the jungle.
There is a huge disparity in strength between the two countries, and Egypt does not have enough capital to call Britain, even if it forcibly takes Tiran Island as its own, Egypt may not be able to hold this piece of fat safely.
In 1932, Ibn Saud, the first king of Saudi Arabia, unified the Arabian Peninsula after years of warfare, dealing an unprecedented blow to British colonial power in the Middle East.
The island of Tiran, which is located between Saudi Arabia and Egypt, is crucial to the maritime transport of both countries, and the British approach is crucial when both Saudi Arabia and Egypt want to take it for themselves.
And just as the British side calculated at the time of Egypt's independence, since it could not seize interests in the Middle East, it was better to detonate the time bomb of Tiran Island. Sure enough, shortly after Saudi independence, the British side divided the island of Tiran to Saudi Arabia despite Egypt's objections.
If Saudi Arabia were to take control of Tiran, the shipping routes in northeastern Egypt would be completely at the mercy of the people, and the sovereignty of the road from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Red Sea would also fall into Saudi hands. In the years that followed, the British got what they wanted, and Saudi Arabia and Egypt had several disputes over the island of Tiran, and the situation in the Red Sea region became increasingly serious.
Although the Saudis obtained Tiran Island, the British military arrangements on Tiran Island were not completely withdrawn, and its ambitions were well known. But just when the British abacus was clanging, an unexpected country was established - Israel.
After World War II, the international situation changed again, and the United States sat firmly on the top spot in the world with its powerful military strength.
In 1947, with the support of the United States, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution allowing Jews to establish a state in the Palestinian region, with the holy city of Jerusalem as the center, establishing the world's first Jewish state.
On May 14, 1948, Israel was officially proclaimed, and on May 11 of the following year, it was granted a rightful seat in the United Nations.
Israel is predominantly Jewish, and although its total population is less than 10 million as of 2021, the backer behind Israel is the global hegemon United States, whose military and economic strength has far surpassed that of other countries in the Middle East since its founding.
Due to differences in religious beliefs, there are irreconcilable differences between countries and sects, and the Middle East remains one of the most turbulent regions in the world.
After the establishment of the State of Israel, because Tiran Island is also an important shipping channel for it, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which are not as powerful as Israel, recognized the reality overnight and stood on the same front.
3. Be humble to each other
Israel is dominated by the Jewish people, and the countries surrounding it are basically Arab people. Although Jews and Arabs were from the same ancestor a thousand years ago, the two peoples gradually became hostile as Judaism and Islam diverged.
Since World War II alone, there have been five major religious wars in the Middle East, and there have been countless small-scale conflicts. The fact that the Jews, with the support of the United States, separated a narrow piece of land from the Arab region of Palestine is undoubtedly the deepest provocation to the Arab nation, but under the deterrence of absolute power, the Arab countries can only swallow their anger.
Israel's long and narrow border, bordered by the Gulf of Aqaba to the south, is its only access to the sea. If Tiran, the key island in the Gulf of Aqaba leading to the Red Sea, were to be controlled by Arab countries, Israel's maritime trade would undoubtedly be dealt a serious blow.
Therefore, at the beginning of the founding of the country, Israel adopted a policy of deterrence, putting on the surface all military and economic support from the United States, in order to warn the surrounding Arab countries not to become enemies of itself.
In the subsequent major wars with Arab countries, Israel did achieve the title of "Little Overlord of the Middle East" with its overwhelming strength.
It took thousands of years for the Jewish people of Israel to have their own territory, and for the time being, they did not have the idea of all-out conquest of Arab countries. However, if the two sides go to war completely, and Tiran Island, as Egypt's former territory, is now in the hands of Saudi Arabia, once the war starts, as long as the sea around Tiran Island is blocked, then Israel's only sea passage Aqaba Bay will be completely blocked.
Although both Saudi Arabia and Egypt once thought that Tiran Island was a piece of sweetness and contention, once one side swallowed Tiran Island alone, it would undoubtedly be regarded as the number one target by Israel.
Therefore, since Israel has gained a firm foothold, both sides have begun to realize that the issue of Tiran Island can be big or small, and if it is handled properly, it may be able to taste the sweetness, but if it is not handled well, it may provoke artillery shells.
In 1950, Saudi Arabia issued a statement that reversed its hardline attitude towards Egypt on the issue of Tiran Island, and declared that it would return the island of Tiran, which had belonged to Egypt, to Egypt in accordance with its historical roots.
The proviso is also very simple and friendly, that is, Egypt needs to allow Saudi Arabia to invest and build infrastructure on the island of Tiran, and not blockade the island.
Such a statement is perfect on the surface, but in fact Saudi Arabia is saying to Israel: "The sovereignty of the island of Tiran has been Egyptian since ancient times, go to Egypt if there is anything, not me!" ”
Egypt naturally would not willingly accept this hot potato, and soon responded to Saudi Arabia in the name of Britain: "When Britain gave Tiran Island to Saudi Arabia, this island has long been Saudi Arabia!" ”
Other countries in the Middle East, seeing that Egypt and Saudi Arabia treat Tiran Island like a "ball", although they are all concerned about the geographical location of Tiran Island, they are powerless, and they have not even publicly sided with anyone, for fear of provoking the anger of Israel and the United States behind it.
The "ball" was kicked until 1978, when the United States finally stepped in.
Fourth, the dust has settled
Saudi Arabia and Egypt are "humbling each other" in the sovereignty of Tiran Island, which seems to be "cowardly", but in fact they are retreating as advances.
First, the two countries ended their previous antagonistic relations, began frequent communication through the medium of Tiran Island, and began extensive cooperation in economic, energy, and military fields.
Even if Israel wants to use Tiran Island as a cause to provoke disputes, Egypt and Saudi Arabia can turn the war into a "tripartite talk" under the pretext that "the other party is the responsible country" and slowly resolve the issue of Tiran Island.
In this way, the sovereignty of Tiran Island has been delayed, and Egypt and Saudi Arabia have unanimously adopted a policy of ignoring this matter.
Originally, after Saudi Arabia ceded sovereignty to Egypt, it withdrew its troops stationed on Tiran Island, and in the following decades, there were no permanent residents on the island, only a few Egyptian military posts and United Nations peacekeeping troops, and these few Egyptian troops were only symbolically stationed.
Israel was still patient and circled Egypt and Saudi Arabia, but the war in the Middle East broke out, and the fuse was still the ownership of Tiran Island.
With Egypt as its main target, Israel has waged four wars against its neighboring Arab countries for more than 20 years, and it is only the people of the Middle East who have suffered in the end.
In 1978, under the leadership of the United States, Egypt and Israel finally sat down at the negotiating table and signed the "Camp David Agreement", under which Egypt, the historical country of origin, held sovereignty over Tiran Island, and Israeli ships could pass through the waters of Tiran Island at any time, and Egypt must not provoke and block it without reason.
Egypt could not afford to resist the United States and did not want to continue the war with Israel, so the agreement was a good idea for each to take what it wanted.
But the situation is unpredictable, and Egypt does not believe that relying on a single agreement can completely cover up the "time bomb" nature of Tiran. Therefore, in the following ten years, Egypt did not strongly claim the sovereignty of Tiran Island, but adopted a "stocking" policy.
After the turn of the millennium, the world has entered a new era of building a modern economy, and the main theme of advocating peace and opposing war has become more and more obvious.
Saudi Arabia, which was glad that it had returned sovereignty over Tiran Island early when Israel attacked Egypt, began to look at the peace situation near Egypt and Tiran Island again.
As Saudi Arabia's rich oil resources, its influence in the Middle East and even the world gradually increased, and the relationship with the United States' oil alliance gradually became closer, the Saudi Congress began to rearrange the issue of Tiran Island.
In 2016, Saudi Arabia negotiated with Egypt with the permission of the United States, demanding that Egypt relinquish sovereignty over Tiran Island.
Saudi Arabia had expected Egypt to reject the talks, but it did not expect to go very smoothly.
On April 9, 2016, the Egyptian Cabinet submitted a resolution to the Egyptian Parliament to transfer Tiran Island, along with the nearby Senafir Island, to Saudi Arabia, and on June 14 of the following year, the Egyptian Parliament passed by a majority vote and announced the results of the plenary vote in Cairo, the capital of Egypt.
The reason why Egypt is so "generous" is, first of all, that it does not intend to completely take over the island of Tiran, and once Israel attacks Egypt again with the island of Tiran, Egypt is simply powerless; Second, during the decades of the military struggle between Egypt and Israel over the island of Tiran, Saudi Arabia has been concentrating on the construction of the oil economy, and its strength has long surpassed that of Egypt.
Tiran and Senafir are the only two islands on the Gulf of Aqaba's road to the Red Sea, and Egypt will be able to remain neutral in the event of a maritime war in the Middle East.
And since Saudi Arabia took the initiative to ask Egypt for Tiran Island, it did not want to take advantage of it in vain.
As a sign of sincerity, Saudi Arabia has provided more than $20 billion in financial assistance to Egypt, and the two countries have become closer in energy cooperation, which undoubtedly has more advantages than disadvantages for Egypt.
V. Conclusion
From the return of Tiran Island by Saudi Arabia in 1950, to the "mutual humbleness" between Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and then to the transfer of Tiran Island again by the Egyptian Congress in 2016, the 68-year-old issue of Tiran Island has finally come to an end to the satisfaction of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the United States.
Egypt was originally the original country of Tiran Island, but it was unable to maintain territorial sovereignty in the face of its own weak power, and was obstructed by the British, who used Tiran Island as a pawn to stir up the situation in the Middle East.
And after the establishment of the State of Israel, if Egypt and Saudi Arabia themselves can compete with Israel, there is no need to push back and forth, and let the issue of the ownership of Tiran Island become the fuse of the Middle East war.
The Middle East is still full of wars, and even if the people yearn for peace, some hegemonic capitalist empires will not easily give up the huge profits they have made in the war.
The situation on Tiran Island is now calm, but in the dangerous situation where the global economy is deeply affected by the epidemic and the oil market is becoming more and more volatile, no one can say whether this "time bomb" will be detonated again in the future!