President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi issued a decree equating King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa with Egyptians in terms of property rights in Sinai, the Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported on Sunday.

Egyptian law restricts land and property ownership in Sinai to Egyptians who hold no other nationality and are born to Egyptian parents.

The amendment, as published in the official gazette, would allow Al Khalifa to purchase three villas in Sharm El-Sheikh's Naama Bay for residential use.

Al Khalifa visited Naama Bay in April.

In 2012, El-Sisi, then defence minister, banned the ownership of land in Sinai by non-Egyptians.

The 2012 decisiopn also banned the ownership of property by all civilians in “strategic areas” of military importance, including all land and property within five kilometres of Egypt’s borders with Gaza, exempting the northern Sinai city of Rafah.

The law, before its the 2012 changes, granted Arabs the right to own land in Sinai on a 99-year-lease-period basis.

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