Israel, Greece, Cyprus plan underwater gas pipeline - ARUTZ SHEVA 7

13/SEPT/2018 // 23:00

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday, at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, held a trilateral meeting with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides. He also met with both men separately.

The three discussed, in continuation of previous meetings, the laying of a joint Israel-Cyprus-Greece East-Med gas pipeline in order to export gas to Europe. They also discussed – inter alia – regional issues, the deepening of cooperation and the initiative to establish a multi-national firefighting force.

"Foreign Minister Christodoulides and Foreign Minister Kotzias, this is one of our regular meetings between Israel, Greece and Cyprus. We have many things that we cooperate on—the environment, energy, security, emergency services, tourism, many others,” said Netanyahu.

“Our prime focus right now is on energy, on developing the eastern Mediterranean pipeline. It’s a great project, could be one of the great underwater projects in the world. And obviously it’s something that we think is important.

Gas finds may lead to Israeli alliance with Egypt, Greece | Arutz Sheva

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (C) meets with (former) Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras (R) and Cyprus' President Nicos Anastasiades in Cairo

Experts: discovery of huge reserves in Mediterranean could lead to cooperation between Israel, Egypt, Greece and Cyprus.

By Gil Ronen, 1/11/2016, 11:14 AM

The discovery of huge reserves of natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean will likely give birth to new alliances in the region, possibly even leading regional powers to "bury old differences and develop unprecedented security, economic and strategic cooperation," according to Amr Emam, writing in The Arab Weekly.

The new regional natural gas players — Egypt, Israel, Greece and Cyprus — are working to develop secure systems to deliver natural gas from the eastern Mediterranean to Europe, making the continent less dependent on gas from Russia, the experts said.

“New finds in the region make cooperation among the new gas producers essential for delivering this gas to important markets, including Europe,” Hossam Farahat, an oil and gas analyst, told The Arab Weekly. “What makes this cooperation more possible is that most of the fields found in the region are so close to each other.”

The idea that Israel, Cyprus and Turkey would provide gas for Europe has been discussed for some time, and as reported by Arutz Sheva at the time, US Vice President Joe Biden remarked upon it in 2014. Egypt, however, was a natural gas importer, not an exporter, until recently.

This changed in August 2015, with the discovery of a huge natural gas field covering 100 sq. km off Egypt's coast. The field reportedly has potential reserves of approximately 30 trillion cubic feet of lean gas, which amount to almost 40% of Egypt's confirmed natural gas reserves. Cairo said that the gas would be used to satisfy local demand, but international energy research centers expect Egypt’s natural gas production to exceed local consumption by 2020.

In addition, economists say Egypt’s need for foreign currency may force it to speed up the export of its natural gas, to a point earlier than 2020, according to Emam, who wrote: "This opens the prospect for creating alliances in the Mediterranean region, where rising gas powers can cooperate to deliver gas to Europe."

Talks with Tsipras, A-Sisi

This idea was reportedly included in talks between European Commissioner for Energy and Climate Action Miguel Arias Canete and Claudio Descalzi, CEO of the Italian firm that discovered the Egyptian gas field, when they met in September 2015.

After the meeting, it was said that the new discovery off Egypt’s coast, along with recent gas discoveries off the shores of Israel and Cyprus, would make it possible for an eastern Mediterranean gas hub "to contribute significantly" to Europe's energy needs.

The same topic was reportedly high in the agenda for Egyptian President Ab­del Fattah a-Sisi and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras during their meeting in Athens in early December. Tsipras had reportedly held similar discussions in Tel Aviv a few days earlier.

Oil and gas experts say Egypt and Israel may build a pipeline from the port of Ashkelon to western Egypt, where there are two giant gas-processing facilities on the Mediterranean coast. There the gas would be transformed to liquefied natural gas (LNG) and shipped by tanker to Europe.

Turkey, which depends on Russia for a sizeable portion of its oil and gas needs, "may find itself obliged to bury its differences with Tel Aviv and Cairo — and possibly Greece — to make up for Russian gas," in case its relations with Moscow continue to deteriorate, as they have of late.

Political science Professor Tarek Fahmi told Emam the presence of a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel will make their cooperation in the regards to natural gas easy. Egypt is highly wary of Turkey, however, because of Turkish leader Erdogan's support for the Muslim Brotherhood, a-Sisi's nemesis.

“But I really doubt that Turkey will be part of this cooperation with Egypt, at least in the foreseeable future,” Fahmi said.

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Israel's Gas Field to receive Iron Dome protection in 'Barak 8' | Arutz Sheva 7 - Israel National News

Following series of successful tests, Israeli offshore gas interests to receive advanced missile defense system to protect for all threats

By Raphael Poch, 12/31/2015

Test of Barak 8 Missile systemPhto Credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit

Head of the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) told Israeli press Wednesday that the newly developed ‘Barak 8’ system which will be installed on Israeli naval ships will be able to protect Israel’s offshore gas assets.

Following the successful tests of the new system in India, Yossi Weiss, CEO of the IAI, said that part of the mission of the project is to protect the Israeli offshore gas assets.

“Technology is giving us the answer to the unfolding developments and threats of our enemies,” he said in an interview with Walla! News.

Weiss added that the system will also be used for “other naval assets." Weiss said the system is capable of providing an answer for a wide range of naval threats, including ‘sea-to-sea’ missiles and torpedoes, air to sea missiles, and land to sea missiles. The system itself uses advanced radar technology which is far superior to previous systems.

The system also has a land based derivative which has been sold to the Indian Air Force. According to current plans between the two nations, that system will soon undergo testing as well.

Vice President for Missiles, Systems and Space Group of the IAI, Boaz Levy, also spoke about the missile tests yesterday and said that “both an Israeli as well as an Indian ship have the systems currently installed.”

While the decision remains with the IDF as to when and how to install further systems, Levy added that the system could be fully operational on Israeli Naval ships in a matter of months.

According to IAI standards, three successful tests are needed to certify a new program. The two trials which occurred in India in the past week, have completed the trial run phase for the ‘Barak 8’ system, and have classified it as ready for deployment.  

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Israeli-Greek-Cypriot Alliance Challenges Turkey in the Med | Arutz Sheva 7 - Israel National News

Economic issues in Athens and partnerships to extract natural gas keep far-left Greek gov't away from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
By Gedalyah Reback, First Publish: 3/9/2015, 5:26 PM

Reuters

Israeli-Greek relations have never been better. Turkey’s pressure on Greek-speaking Cyprus over natural gas drilling has pushed both the Cypriots and the Greeks into an unprecedented defense and economic relationship with Jerusalem. But the relationship could be challenged by Greece’s new far-left government.

After the Syriza party was elected, there was speculation in Israel that their Middle East policy could shift. It was a number of Syriza activists lastsummer who led demonstrations against Operation Protective Edge. Additionally, the party is composed of a number of extremely pro-Palestinian politicians. But other factors have impacted whatever influence those views might have had in reversing Greece’s growing relationship with Israel.

Arutz Sheva spoke to Ambassador Arye Mekel, former Israeli Ambassador to Greece and currently a researcher for the Begin Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, who explained that "Syriza is an alliance of 14 smaller far-left factions. One Deputy Minister even participated in one of the flotillas to Gaza."

Turkey Eclipses the Palestinians

Greece is very close to Cyprus, the Greek-speaking island nation also sitting on the same batch of natural gas fields as Israel. But the island is divided; in 1974, Turkey invaded and occupied the northern half of the island and created a separate enclave for the Turks that moved there.

Turkey’s claims that some gas fields belong to Northern Cyprus, a "state" whose independence only Turkey recognizes, threatens Cyprus’ ability to extract natural gas from the Mediterranean. With that in the background and relations between Israel and Turkey in the cold, Israel and Greece have expanded their military relationship.

Thanks to the inclusion of the right-wing ANEL party in the coalition, whatever fear people have had Syriza might roll back ties with Jerusalem has been alleviated.

At the end of February, ANEL’s party leader Panos Kammenos announced plans for new joint military exercises with Israel and Cyprus.

Kammenos said in February: "Defense planning should take into account friends and allies which seek defense cooperation in the region. And I clearly I mean eastward toward Israel."

Still, Ambassador Mekel did not see the tensions with Turkey as an overarching problem for Greece.

“There was a semi-crisis when the Cypriots found some gas and refused to share it with the Turkish Cypriots. The Turks sent warships to the area, but in the end it amounted to nothing and the Cypriots continued their drilling.”

“Kammenos himself is well known to us. Kammenos has always been friendly with us (Israel), especially some years ago when he was a Deputy Minister for Shipping when we had some problems in that area.”

“This past summer we stationed for the first time a military attaché, a Colonel, in Athens. I don’t see any deterioration any time soon.”

He did not address Kammenos’ comments that recent Turkish exploratory missions off the shore of Cyprus were the main motivation for the newexercises and whether or not they actually were significant to provoke the new exercises. What seems to matter more is that for Kammenos they certainly do matter.

Three-way Economic Agreements

Still, there is plenty of economic cooperation on energy that binds Israeland Greece. There has been talk of mutual drilling projects, pipelines and expansion of infrastructure in other areas linking Israel, Greece and Cyprus. One of them is the laying of a new 2,000-megawatt underwater cable that will link Cyprus’ and Israel’s electrical grids to each other and to Europe. The defense relationship is directly related to Turkey’s threats to cease gas fields from Cyprus on behalf of Northern Cyprus.

Israel signed a tentative understanding with Greece on natural gas back in 2011, but delays in the Israeli courts have kept that understanding from becoming a full-fledged agreement. A December 2014 decision by the commissioner of Israel’s Anti-Trust Authority to break up the cartel controlling the Leviathan gas field had caused stocks in Israel to plunge. When asked if that news had sent a ripple through Greece and upset the earlier understanding between the two countries, the Ambassador did not see it as agitating Greece.

“Right now there is no harm that can come because there is nothing to harm.”

“There was something very general that was signed. Uzi Landau signed something with the Greeks but it remained on paper.”

He emphasized that the discussions between Israel and Greece have continued for years, but the details have not been outlined in any type of major trade deal or treaty.

“The entire gas saga is not going anywhere for the time being. No one inIsrael has decided how much to export, what to export and to whom to export and by what channels.”

“We had visits from Uzi Landau who was the Minister of Energy and then Silvan Shalom who later became Minister of Energy. I arranged for him a meeting with the Greek Prime Minister but no conclusions came of it. It was a subject of discussions, including when the Greek government held a G2G – government-to-government – meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu with his ministers.”

Going Forward

Tomorrow night, Ambassador Mekel will join a panel with author Dr. Aristotle Tziampiris to promote the launch of the doctor’s new book on Israeli-Greek relations. He says that for both Dr. Tziampiris and himself, their research has been impacted by the sudden change in government.

“The professor just published a book on Greek-Israeli relations over the last four years. Ironically the government collapsed just as it was coming out.”

With a hint for his optimism that the new Greek government will not be the trouble that some Israelis worried about, Ambassador Mekel said with a chuckle laugh that he was "inconvenienced" by the sudden change in Athens.

“I have been writing my own research on the topic right now. My plan until recently was to write only about the last four years – the great era. Then the government collapsed and Syriza came to power. Now I have to write a whole new chapter about the current government.”

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