Egypt’s appeals court has upheld Cairo’s decision to give control of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.

The appeals court upheld a verdict by a lower court that annulled a ruling by an administrative court made in October. That decision annulled the government’s decision to hand sovereignty of the Tiran and Sanafir islands to Saudi Arabia.

The island transfer deal was announced in an Egyptian cabinet statement on 9 April, following a five-day state visit to Egypt by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud.

Egyptian opposition groups have said an agreement between Cairo and Riyadh to redraw the Red Sea maritime border between the two countries, ceding sovereignty over two islands to Saudi Arabia, is unconstitutional.

Ownership of the uninhabited islands, which sit at the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba, has long been disputed, with both Cairo and Riyadh claiming them, although they were under Egyptian control.

In late December, the Egyptian government approved the deal to hand over the islands and sent it to parliament for ratification.