An Egyptian administrative court has upheld an earlier verdict annulling the Egyptian-Saudi maritime border agreement, which saw Cairo cede two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia earlier this year.

The verdict annulled the decision to hand sovereignty of the Tiran and Sanafir islands to the kingdom, which 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.

The court argued that Article 51 of the Egyptian constitution prohibited the relinquishing of any territory, and it has fined the Egyptian government for the decision.

It remains unclear whether Egypt’s cabinet will further appeal the decision and Riyadh has yet to make a statement on the issue.

In October, Saudi Arabia also halted an oil agreement between Riyadh and Cairo agreed earlier this year, which was prompted when Egypt voted in favour of a Russia-backed UN resolution on Syria in October.

Saudi Arabia strongly opposed the UN-backed resolution, despite providing no clarity regarding the halting of the deal with Cairo. The deal involved the delivery of 700,000 tonnes of petroleum products monthly for five years on easy repayment terms, under a $23bn deal between Saudi Aramco and Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC).

Egypt stopped receiving its allocations in October and the Ministry of Petroleum did not receive any official correspondence from Aramco regarding the status of petroleum shipments deliveries, in accordance with the contract, according to a statement posted on the ministry’s website.