SUMMARY: The breakup of Arabia from Africa started at 40-50 Ma in the East African Rift

of Suez and East African Rift meet he main boundary at what have often been considered tobe active triple junctions (the southern tip of Sinai and Afar). This paper focuses on the continental Sinai triple junction ear 27 ~ 30'N. Almost no reliable kinematic data can be found in the Red Sea. Only total motion based on a fit of coastlines i available. Yet, the mechanical basis for this is now known to be wrong. We propose amechanical interpretation that retains the same pole of ARA-NUB motion, with a reduced amount of total opening. The best data come from the Dead Sea shear: 100 km of left-lateral displacement occurred over the last 20, or more likely 15 Ma (subsidence event in the Gulf of Suez). The pull-apart basins in the Gulf of Elat provide the best constraints on the azimuth of SIN-ARA motion. Four models of SIN-ARA-NUB kinematics are proposed epending on whether the Gulf of Suez is; (i) now extinct, (ii) still opening in the original direction, (iii) in a state of left-lateral shear, (iv) in a state of right-lateral shear. Total SIN-NUB motion is unlikely to exceed 1-2 mm yr-1. We propose a two-phase history of break-up, first along the East African Rift/Red Sea/Gulf of Suez, superseded at- 15 Ma by the present Gulf of Aden/Red Sea/Dead Sea shear. Distributed extension ow occurs in the Afar and northern Red Sea deforming zones towards which three localized rifts propagate. The Sinai and Afar 'tripl