Israeli officials were sending a “business as usual” message to Athens this week, in the wake of an announcement on Monday that Israel and Turkey are normalizing relations after a six-year freeze following the deadly Mavi Marmara incident.
Although the Israeli side remains tight-lipped on the future route or routes towards Europe of the natural gas it extracts from the east Mediterranean, any pipeline scenario through Turkey is reportedly contingent on a solution to the long-standing “Cyprus problem”.
According to reports widely circulated in the Greek capital this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu phoned his Greek counter Alexis Tsipras to reassure Athens that it remains a strategic partner for the Mideast state, and that Israel seeks to expand cooperation with the Greek side on other levels as well.
The next day
Sources said the Netanyahu phone call to Tsipras aimed to allay any concerns, especially in light of the more-or-less expected rapprochement between Tel-Aviv and Ankara — something that both the Greek and the Cypriot sides apparently understood and discussed in the previous period with Israeli officials.
Nevertheless, one previously dynamic sector of economic ties between Turkey and Israeli, tourism, appears stagnant at present, as most Israeli holiday-makers appear apprehensive of Turkey’s Erdogan-dominated foreign policy. Just as importantly, a recent spate of terror attacks in Turkey, particularly in Istanbul, has severely dampened tourism flows to the country.
Energy issues
As far as the still unresolved question of a route towards Europe for Israeli natgas, sources said the same three options remain on the table: transfer to Egypt, liquefaction and then seaborne transport; construction of the EastMed pipeline through Greece and Cyprus, and finally, a possible pipeline through Turkey.
The “Turkey option” reportedly includes pledges by the Israeli side of a prior solution to the Cyprus issue, although nary an official or analyst risks gauging what influence the “energy card” can exert on political developments on the divided island.
The same sources pointed instead to “smart solutions” in terms of energy-related cooperation in the east Mediterranean, based on a multi-dimensional approach, one that even includes the prospect of Israeli exports of natural gas to neighboring Egypt and Jordan.
The determining factor may well await a final assessment of the size of the natgas deposits in the east Mediterranean. For instance, the oft-cited “Leviathan” deposit isn’t expected to be fully exploited before 2020.
