Leaks by “Turkish officials” about possible exports Israeli gas through Turkey they brought the issue to the surface after meeting in Ankara with his foreign minister Israel Eli Cohen with the President of the country Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

According to reports, Turkish officials said Erdogan repeated that Turkey has facilities and can help export Israeli gas to Europe.

According to the same reports (mostly by Amihai Stein), Mr. Cohen stated that the matter would be looked into. It is worth noting that these leaks are almost identical to similar leaks made in March last year, when Mr. Erdogan then met in Ankara with his Israeli counterpart, Yitzhak Herzog. Other analysts in the Israeli presslike Barak David of Haaretz, thought it was a scenario with many difficulties that would ultimately fail.

This was reported to “K” by competent sources. that during his recent visit to Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias was briefed by his Israeli counterpart on Israel’s energy plans for the coming period. In any case, the Turkish leaks are indicative of the efforts Ankara is making to take advantage of the current situation to achieve its old goals, despite the prevailing situation – due to the earthquake – at home.

old design

Ankara is trying to advance its goals, despite the situation that has developed due to the earthquake at home.

Her mediation Turkey Exporting Israeli natural gas to Europe is Ankara’s old plan, which was unsuccessfully proposed to previous governments even in the midst of Turkish-Israeli tensions.

In particular, before the crash of the Crans-Montana ship, a conference to resolve it Cyprus in 2017, the plan with the ideal scenario of a united Cyprus was to transport natural gas through the mega-island to Turkey, and from there to Europe.

Since an onshore pipeline from Israel to Turkey is probably not possible, as it would have to cross Syria, or Lebanon and Syria together, the only possibility is that there will be some sort of LNG collaboration.

Israeli natural gas is currently exported from Eastern Mediterranean To Europe and elsewhere, chiefly through Egypt. There is very close cooperation between Cairo and Jerusalem in the field of natural gas, as evidenced by the participation of the two countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Energy Forum (EMGF). Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Israel, Italy, Jordan and Palestine participate in the EMGF.

One of the broader controversies about gas cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean concerns how realistic it is that Turkey will join the EMGF at some point.