President defends giving Red Sea islands to Saudis

Egypt's president on Wednesday defended his country's declared intention to hand over control of two strategic Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, saying Cairo did not surrender its territory but "restored" the rights of the Saudis.

He also reiterated Cairo's position that Egyptian security forces had nothing to do with the torture and killing of an Italian graduate student abducted in Cairo.

Egypt's government maintains that the islands of Tiran and Sanafir at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba belong to Saudi Arabia, which in 1950 asked Egypt to protect them from Israel. Israel captured the islands in the 1967 Middle East war, but handed them back to Egypt under the provisions of the 1979 peace treaty.