16 dec 2019
With expected boon, Israel plans to wean itself off coal and potentially revolutionize its economy, potentially aided by EU as it aims to reduce dependence on Russian gas with new delivery routes, something that could also curtail Iranian ambitions to use Syria as gateway to Mediterranean
Israel became a major energy exporter for the first time on Monday after signing a permit to export natural gas to Egypt.
The announcement comes just days before Israel's lucrative Leviathan gas field in the Mediterranean Sea is expected to go online.
Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz called the permit a “historic landmark” for Israel. He said it’s the most significant economic cooperation project between the neighboring countries since they signed a peace deal in 1979.
With the expected gas boon, Israel plans to wean itself off coal and potentially revolutionize its economy.
The European Union, seeking to reduce its dependence on Russian gas, has encouraged the formation of new delivery routes, including through the eastern Mediterranean. These routes could also curtail Iranian ambitions to use Syria as a gateway to the Mediterranean.
“The natural gas revolution turns us into an energy power and affords us not just huge income for the country but also a dramatic decrease in air pollution,” Steinitz said.
But Israel’s focus on its newfound gas reserves over the past decade has faced stiff domestic criticism from environmental and social welfare activists.
They say the government has been too generous toward the gas tycoons behind the exploration, and that the massive investment has steered resources away from focusing on renewable energy sources.
More recently, local activists have been urging Israel’s Delek Drilling and its U.S. partner, Noble Energy, to move a proposed shoreline treatment gas rig farther out to sea.
The activists fear what they call the catastrophic consequences of spreading toxic water and air pollution toward their homes.
Delek, Noble, and the government insist that the most stringent safety measures have been put in place, and accuse their critics of waging an irresponsible scare campaign.
Aside from the economic benefits, the promise of gas appears to have helped Israel grow closer to Arab governments and other Mediterranean countries.
Israel signed a $15 billion deal last year to provide Egypt with 64 billion cubic meters of gas over a 10-year period that will help transform both into regional energy players.
In January, Egypt hosted its first-ever regional gas forum. Steinitz attended alongside several regional delegations, the first such visit by an Israeli cabinet member since Egypt’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising.
Although past economic agreements with Israel have been controversial in Egypt, where support for the Palestinians runs high, relations have been steadily warming.
Israel became a major energy exporter for the first time on Monday after signing a permit to export natural gas to Egypt.
The announcement comes just days before Israel's lucrative Leviathan gas field in the Mediterranean Sea is expected to go online.
Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz called the permit a “historic landmark” for Israel. He said it’s the most significant economic cooperation project between the neighboring countries since they signed a peace deal in 1979.
With the expected gas boon, Israel plans to wean itself off coal and potentially revolutionize its economy.
The European Union, seeking to reduce its dependence on Russian gas, has encouraged the formation of new delivery routes, including through the eastern Mediterranean. These routes could also curtail Iranian ambitions to use Syria as a gateway to the Mediterranean.
“The natural gas revolution turns us into an energy power and affords us not just huge income for the country but also a dramatic decrease in air pollution,” Steinitz said.
But Israel’s focus on its newfound gas reserves over the past decade has faced stiff domestic criticism from environmental and social welfare activists.
They say the government has been too generous toward the gas tycoons behind the exploration, and that the massive investment has steered resources away from focusing on renewable energy sources.
More recently, local activists have been urging Israel’s Delek Drilling and its U.S. partner, Noble Energy, to move a proposed shoreline treatment gas rig farther out to sea.
The activists fear what they call the catastrophic consequences of spreading toxic water and air pollution toward their homes.
Delek, Noble, and the government insist that the most stringent safety measures have been put in place, and accuse their critics of waging an irresponsible scare campaign.
Aside from the economic benefits, the promise of gas appears to have helped Israel grow closer to Arab governments and other Mediterranean countries.
Israel signed a $15 billion deal last year to provide Egypt with 64 billion cubic meters of gas over a 10-year period that will help transform both into regional energy players.
In January, Egypt hosted its first-ever regional gas forum. Steinitz attended alongside several regional delegations, the first such visit by an Israeli cabinet member since Egypt’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising.
Although past economic agreements with Israel have been controversial in Egypt, where support for the Palestinians runs high, relations have been steadily warming.
9 sept 2019
This file picture taken on January 31, 2019 shows an aerial view of the SSCV Thialf crane vessel laying the newly-arrived foundation platform for the Leviathan natural gas field in the Mediterranean Sea, about 130 kilometers (81 miles) west of the coast of the Israeli city of Haifa
Israel has struck a deal with Egypt to use a gas terminal in Ashkelon for exports of gas to the Arab country, despite opposition from Lebanon which views the reserves as stolen.
The arrangement reached on Sunday removed one of the final hurdles before Israel could begin selling gas to Egypt in a $15 billion export deal, the two sides said.
The gas will be supplied via a 90 km-long subsea pipeline that connects Ashkelon to el-Arish in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, but first the gas must pass through the Israeli terminal in Ashkelon.
Israel looks at Jordan and Egypt as the potential buyers of gas which it claims to have found in the eastern Mediterranean. Egypt's trade with Israel is larger than its trade with some Arab countries.
The reserves, discovered in the eastern Mediterranean Levant Basin since 2009, straddle the territories of several countries - including Cyprus, Greece, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria - whose relations are strained on a number of fronts.
Lebanon has warned its Mediterranean neighbors that a planned gas pipeline from Israel to the European Union must not be allowed to violate its maritime borders.
Beirut has an unresolved maritime border dispute with Israel over a sea area of about 860 sq km extending along the edge of three of Lebanon’s southern energy blocks.
Israel is hoping to enlist several European countries in the construction of a 2,000 km pipeline linking vast eastern Mediterranean gas resources to Europe through Cyprus, Greece and Italy at a cost of $7 billion.
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said in February that Israel was seeking to steal Lebanon’s oil and gas reserves.
Lebanese sources have said the region where Israel claims to have made the find lies mostly off the Lebanese shores and in international waters between the sea border of Palestine and Cyprus.
Egypt's gas trade with Israel
Before 2012, Israel imported natural gas from Egypt; though the pipeline, running through the restive Sinai Peninsula, was dogged by frequent attacks.
The sale of gas to Israel, which signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979 after four wars, was always controversial in the Arab world’s most populous country.
The deal, initially slated to last 20 years, was finally canceled by Egyptian authorities following the 2012 ouster of president Hosni Mubarak.
The cancellation put the official stamp on the end of the bilateral gas deal. Several senior petroleum officials under Mubarak, including his oil minister Sameh Fahmy, were also sentenced to between three and 15 years in jail for selling natural gas at below-market prices.
However, they were all acquitted when former defense minister and army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, who oversaw the ousting of Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, came to power.
Other than Jordan, Egypt is the only Arab nation with formal relations with Israel under a peace treaty signed by former president Anwar Sadat in 1979.
Sisi once claimed he was approached in a dream by Sadat and was told by the former leader he would rule Egypt some day.
In a leaked recording of an interview with a reporter for Egypt daily al-Masry al-Youm in 2013, Sisi is heard recounting his fantastical conversation with Sadat, who was assassinated in 1981.
Israel has struck a deal with Egypt to use a gas terminal in Ashkelon for exports of gas to the Arab country, despite opposition from Lebanon which views the reserves as stolen.
The arrangement reached on Sunday removed one of the final hurdles before Israel could begin selling gas to Egypt in a $15 billion export deal, the two sides said.
The gas will be supplied via a 90 km-long subsea pipeline that connects Ashkelon to el-Arish in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, but first the gas must pass through the Israeli terminal in Ashkelon.
Israel looks at Jordan and Egypt as the potential buyers of gas which it claims to have found in the eastern Mediterranean. Egypt's trade with Israel is larger than its trade with some Arab countries.
The reserves, discovered in the eastern Mediterranean Levant Basin since 2009, straddle the territories of several countries - including Cyprus, Greece, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria - whose relations are strained on a number of fronts.
Lebanon has warned its Mediterranean neighbors that a planned gas pipeline from Israel to the European Union must not be allowed to violate its maritime borders.
Beirut has an unresolved maritime border dispute with Israel over a sea area of about 860 sq km extending along the edge of three of Lebanon’s southern energy blocks.
Israel is hoping to enlist several European countries in the construction of a 2,000 km pipeline linking vast eastern Mediterranean gas resources to Europe through Cyprus, Greece and Italy at a cost of $7 billion.
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said in February that Israel was seeking to steal Lebanon’s oil and gas reserves.
Lebanese sources have said the region where Israel claims to have made the find lies mostly off the Lebanese shores and in international waters between the sea border of Palestine and Cyprus.
Egypt's gas trade with Israel
Before 2012, Israel imported natural gas from Egypt; though the pipeline, running through the restive Sinai Peninsula, was dogged by frequent attacks.
The sale of gas to Israel, which signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979 after four wars, was always controversial in the Arab world’s most populous country.
The deal, initially slated to last 20 years, was finally canceled by Egyptian authorities following the 2012 ouster of president Hosni Mubarak.
The cancellation put the official stamp on the end of the bilateral gas deal. Several senior petroleum officials under Mubarak, including his oil minister Sameh Fahmy, were also sentenced to between three and 15 years in jail for selling natural gas at below-market prices.
However, they were all acquitted when former defense minister and army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, who oversaw the ousting of Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, came to power.
Other than Jordan, Egypt is the only Arab nation with formal relations with Israel under a peace treaty signed by former president Anwar Sadat in 1979.
Sisi once claimed he was approached in a dream by Sadat and was told by the former leader he would rule Egypt some day.
In a leaked recording of an interview with a reporter for Egypt daily al-Masry al-Youm in 2013, Sisi is heard recounting his fantastical conversation with Sadat, who was assassinated in 1981.
4 july 2019
Imprisoned Egyptian opposition figure Abdel Moneim Aboul-Fotouh
An Egyptian human rights group has warned that prominent opposition figure and former presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul-Fotouh may die in prison due to medical negligence.
The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies said in a statement released on Thursday that Egyptian authorities are deliberately denying the 68-year-old leader of the centrist Strong Egypt Party “direly-needed healthcare” for his chronic illnesses.
The statement added that the veteran politician was facing “imminent death.”
Aboul-Fotouh was arrested on February 14, 2018, following a damning interview he gave to Qatar-based al-Jazeera news television network, in which he criticized Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and the “environment of fear” surrounding the run-up to the presidential elections, which were held between March 26 and 28 that year.
In the interview, Aboul-Fotouh condemned Sisi's crackdown on the opposition and said then presidential elections were not fair, transparent, or "democratic," especially with the absence of real opposition.
“A boycott of this mockery is a duty, in our opinion, because we don't accept for Egyptians to participate in a farce," he said. “I didn’t nominate myself as a candidate because there are no real elections happening in the first place.”
“I had hoped for the situation to change, for the state of emergency to end, and for political freedoms to return, but we have been faced with political candidates being pressured into stepping down and their lives being threatened.
“There is no real candidate [in the Egyptian elections] apart from the current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Where’s the opposition? Even the opposition they provided five minutes before the deadline for candidate registration, he’s a supporter of Sisi. So there’s no real opposition, therefore this is not a real election,” Aboul-Fotouh commented.
The news comes more than two weeks after the death of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, who collapsed while attending his trial in Cairo.
Morsi collapsed in a defendants' cage in the courtroom and was pronounced dead in hospital at 4:50 p.m. local time (0250 GMT) on June 18. A medical report showed no apparent recent injuries on his body, the prosecutor said.
Human Rights Watch called Morsi's death "terrible" but "entirely predictable," criticizing the Egyptian government for its "failure to allow him adequate medical care.”
There have been various reports over the years that Morsi had been mistreated and tortured in jail. Human rights activists maintain that his death should be seen in context of Egyptian authorities' systematic isolation and mistreatment of political detainees.
An Egyptian human rights group has warned that prominent opposition figure and former presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul-Fotouh may die in prison due to medical negligence.
The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies said in a statement released on Thursday that Egyptian authorities are deliberately denying the 68-year-old leader of the centrist Strong Egypt Party “direly-needed healthcare” for his chronic illnesses.
The statement added that the veteran politician was facing “imminent death.”
Aboul-Fotouh was arrested on February 14, 2018, following a damning interview he gave to Qatar-based al-Jazeera news television network, in which he criticized Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and the “environment of fear” surrounding the run-up to the presidential elections, which were held between March 26 and 28 that year.
In the interview, Aboul-Fotouh condemned Sisi's crackdown on the opposition and said then presidential elections were not fair, transparent, or "democratic," especially with the absence of real opposition.
“A boycott of this mockery is a duty, in our opinion, because we don't accept for Egyptians to participate in a farce," he said. “I didn’t nominate myself as a candidate because there are no real elections happening in the first place.”
“I had hoped for the situation to change, for the state of emergency to end, and for political freedoms to return, but we have been faced with political candidates being pressured into stepping down and their lives being threatened.
“There is no real candidate [in the Egyptian elections] apart from the current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Where’s the opposition? Even the opposition they provided five minutes before the deadline for candidate registration, he’s a supporter of Sisi. So there’s no real opposition, therefore this is not a real election,” Aboul-Fotouh commented.
The news comes more than two weeks after the death of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, who collapsed while attending his trial in Cairo.
Morsi collapsed in a defendants' cage in the courtroom and was pronounced dead in hospital at 4:50 p.m. local time (0250 GMT) on June 18. A medical report showed no apparent recent injuries on his body, the prosecutor said.
Human Rights Watch called Morsi's death "terrible" but "entirely predictable," criticizing the Egyptian government for its "failure to allow him adequate medical care.”
There have been various reports over the years that Morsi had been mistreated and tortured in jail. Human rights activists maintain that his death should be seen in context of Egyptian authorities' systematic isolation and mistreatment of political detainees.
19 june 2019
Egypt has rejected a call by the United Nations for an “independent” investigation into the death in court of the country’s first democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi, saying the world body is “politicizing” the death.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Tuesday called for an “independent and thorough” investigation into the sudden death of Morsi during a trial court session on Monday.
Morsi was buried at dawn a day later in the presence of his family members only, said his son Ahmed Morsi, in a burial that analysts believe fuels suspicions surrounding his death.
The OHCHR’s call angered Egypt, with the North African country’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez condemning it “in the strongest terms” on Wednesday.
Hafez described the call as a “deliberate attempt to politicize a case of natural death.”
Rupert Colville, spokesman for the OHCHR, had said “Any sudden death in custody must be followed by a prompt, impartial, thorough and transparent investigation carried out by an independent body to clarify the cause of death.”
Morsi, a senior figure in Egypt’s now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood organization, was elected as Egypt’s president after the 2011 revolution, which ousted former dictator Hosni Mubarak.
However, Morsi was deposed through a bloody military coup led by his then-army chief and now President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in July 2013.
Morsi, 67, had been serving prison terms on several charges, including passing intelligence to Qatar.
He suffered from medical neglect during his imprisonment as well as poor conditions in prison.
Last year, a report by a panel of UK legislators and attorneys warned that the lack of medical treatment could result in Morsi’s “premature death.”
The Muslim Brotherhood has labeled Morsi’s death as a full-fledged murder.
The organization said Egyptian authorities were responsible for his deliberate slow death.
During the past few years, Sisi has faced growing criticism about his way of treating dissidents, especially those linked to the Muslim Brotherhood movement.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Tuesday called for an “independent and thorough” investigation into the sudden death of Morsi during a trial court session on Monday.
Morsi was buried at dawn a day later in the presence of his family members only, said his son Ahmed Morsi, in a burial that analysts believe fuels suspicions surrounding his death.
The OHCHR’s call angered Egypt, with the North African country’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez condemning it “in the strongest terms” on Wednesday.
Hafez described the call as a “deliberate attempt to politicize a case of natural death.”
Rupert Colville, spokesman for the OHCHR, had said “Any sudden death in custody must be followed by a prompt, impartial, thorough and transparent investigation carried out by an independent body to clarify the cause of death.”
Morsi, a senior figure in Egypt’s now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood organization, was elected as Egypt’s president after the 2011 revolution, which ousted former dictator Hosni Mubarak.
However, Morsi was deposed through a bloody military coup led by his then-army chief and now President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in July 2013.
Morsi, 67, had been serving prison terms on several charges, including passing intelligence to Qatar.
He suffered from medical neglect during his imprisonment as well as poor conditions in prison.
Last year, a report by a panel of UK legislators and attorneys warned that the lack of medical treatment could result in Morsi’s “premature death.”
The Muslim Brotherhood has labeled Morsi’s death as a full-fledged murder.
The organization said Egyptian authorities were responsible for his deliberate slow death.
During the past few years, Sisi has faced growing criticism about his way of treating dissidents, especially those linked to the Muslim Brotherhood movement.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for the prosecution of Egyptian government officials who "murdered" the country's first democratically-elected president Mohamed Morsi.
Erdogan told an election rally on Wednesday that Morsi "did not die, he was murdered," days after the former Egyptian president suffered a fatal heart attack in a Cairo court.
Erdogan said he will push to ensure the Egyptian government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is held into account by international courts for Morsi's death.
He also called on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to take action. The Turkish head of state said he would raise the issue at the G-20 summit in Japan which is set to kick off later this month.
Shortly after his death on Monday, Morsi was buried at dawn in the presence of some of his family members in a burial that analysts believe fuels suspicions surrounding his death.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Tuesday called for an “independent and thorough” investigation into the issue.
The call angered Egypt, with the North African country’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez condemning it “in the strongest terms” on Wednesday.
Hafez described the call as a “deliberate attempt to politicize a case of natural death.”
Rupert Colville, spokesman for the OHCHR, had said “Any sudden death in custody must be followed by a prompt, impartial, thorough and transparent investigation carried out by an independent body to clarify the cause of death.”
"Concerns have been raised regarding the conditions of Mr. Morsi's detention, including access to adequate medical care, as well as sufficient access to his lawyers and family," Colville added.
Erdogan: Morsi's death not 'normal'
Erdogan, a key supporter of Morsi, has dismissed Cairo's account that he died of natural causes.
During a prayer service in Istanbul on Tuesday, he said that the former Egyptian president's death was not "normal."
"I don't believe that this was a normal death," Erdogan said.
He also lashed out at Egyptian officials for inviting only a small number of Morsi's family members to his secret funeral.
"They are so cowardly that they could not even deliver his body to his family," Erdogan said.
Morsi, a senior figure in Egypt’s now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood organization, was elected as Egypt’s president after the 2011 revolution, which ousted former dictator Hosni Mubarak.
However, Morsi was deposed through a bloody military coup led by his then-army chief and now President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in July 2013.
Morsi, 67, had been serving prison terms on several charges, including passing intelligence to Qatar.
He suffered from medical neglect during his imprisonment as well as poor conditions in prison.
Erdogan told an election rally on Wednesday that Morsi "did not die, he was murdered," days after the former Egyptian president suffered a fatal heart attack in a Cairo court.
Erdogan said he will push to ensure the Egyptian government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is held into account by international courts for Morsi's death.
He also called on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to take action. The Turkish head of state said he would raise the issue at the G-20 summit in Japan which is set to kick off later this month.
Shortly after his death on Monday, Morsi was buried at dawn in the presence of some of his family members in a burial that analysts believe fuels suspicions surrounding his death.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Tuesday called for an “independent and thorough” investigation into the issue.
The call angered Egypt, with the North African country’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez condemning it “in the strongest terms” on Wednesday.
Hafez described the call as a “deliberate attempt to politicize a case of natural death.”
Rupert Colville, spokesman for the OHCHR, had said “Any sudden death in custody must be followed by a prompt, impartial, thorough and transparent investigation carried out by an independent body to clarify the cause of death.”
"Concerns have been raised regarding the conditions of Mr. Morsi's detention, including access to adequate medical care, as well as sufficient access to his lawyers and family," Colville added.
Erdogan: Morsi's death not 'normal'
Erdogan, a key supporter of Morsi, has dismissed Cairo's account that he died of natural causes.
During a prayer service in Istanbul on Tuesday, he said that the former Egyptian president's death was not "normal."
"I don't believe that this was a normal death," Erdogan said.
He also lashed out at Egyptian officials for inviting only a small number of Morsi's family members to his secret funeral.
"They are so cowardly that they could not even deliver his body to his family," Erdogan said.
Morsi, a senior figure in Egypt’s now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood organization, was elected as Egypt’s president after the 2011 revolution, which ousted former dictator Hosni Mubarak.
However, Morsi was deposed through a bloody military coup led by his then-army chief and now President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in July 2013.
Morsi, 67, had been serving prison terms on several charges, including passing intelligence to Qatar.
He suffered from medical neglect during his imprisonment as well as poor conditions in prison.
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