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2021-02-22 Israel-Palestine-Jordan
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Rare visit to Israel by Egypt’s oil minister sends signals to Biden, Erdogan
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[IsraelTimes] The trip, following similar delegations of Greek and Cypriot leaders, is intended to show that the regional allies are united and coordinated, both against friends and foes.
| Analysts say that one of the key purposes of the meetings — beyond the energy discussions — was to send a message to Turkey, and its president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. |
Although the visit of Egypt’s Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister to Israel on Sunday had the trappings of a routine discussion about energy cooperation by regional partners, it also sent a message to rivals and to the United States.
Tarek el-Molla’s trip was noteworthy for the mere fact that he was the first Egyptian minister to visit Israel since foreign minister Sameh Shoukry met with Netanyahu in 2016. And El-Molla is no minor player. "El-Molla is very close to Sisi," pointed out Gabriel Mitchell of the Mitvim Institute, an Israel-based think tank. "He is arguably one of the most visible Egyptian ministers outside the presidency."
Continued from Page 4
There is certainly no shortage of weighty energy issues for El-Molla to discuss with Israel. Israel and Egypt agreed Sunday to link up Israel’s Leviathan natural gas field with Egyptian liquid natural gas facilities through an underwater pipeline, from which it can be exported to European markets.
What’s more, a UAE-Israel plan to pump oil from Eilat on the Red Sea to Ashkelon on the Mediterranean concerns Egypt, but Cairo has largely refrained from publicly criticizing the project. A deal to provide Israeli natural gas to Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response ...
is nearing approval, and anything that happens in the coastal enclave could have a direct impact on Egyptian security.
And analysts say that one of the key purposes of the meetings — beyond the energy discussions — was to send a message to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
, and its president His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
 ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
.
For the better part of a decade, Turkey has been engaged in a bitter rivalry with Egypt that began when Erdogan backed the Moslem Brüderbund after the group was ousted from power in Cairo
In the Mediterranean, Egypt has aligned itself with Greece and Cyprus, which accuse Turkey of illegally drilling for natural gas in their exclusive economic zones. Together with Israel, the countries formed the EastMed Gas Forum, headquartered in Cairo, and have conducted joint military exercises.
"A meeting between Israel and Egypt, even if it isn’t the primary purpose of the visit, does send a message to Turkey, especially in the context of the other meetings that are taking place this month," said Mitchell.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited Israel on February 8, and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades met with Netanyahu on February 14.
"There s a clear message of unity, that these partners are working together, that they have their diplomatic ducks in a row, they have their energy ducks in a row."
The East Mediterranean Gas Forum (EMGF), which comprises Israel, Egypt, Cyprus, Greece, and the Paleostinian Authority, was formally launched in September. The forum intends to cooperate on the establishment of a natural gas pipeline connecting Israel, Greece and Cyprus to Italia and on to Europe. The eventual aim is to supply the continent with ten percent of its gas.
Israel joined the EMGF last September in a development formally establishing the brainchild of Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz and el-Molla as a regional intergovernmental organization, based in Cairo.
The visit was also meant to send a message to the Biden Administration.
Egypt anticipates increased pressure from the US government over its human rights
...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state...
record.
"We won’t tolerate assaults or threats by foreign governments against American citizens or their family members," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said last week after President Abdel Fattah el Sisi’s government arrested the family of a political activist who is also a US citizen.
As a presidential candidate, Biden tweeted "No more blank checks for Trump’s ’favorite dictator.'"
"I have no doubt that the Egyptians have worries about the Biden Administration," said Eran Lerman, vice president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and past deputy director of Israel’s National Security Council.
"The Egyptians understand well how important expressions of normalization like this are for Israel," said Moshe Albo, a modern Middle East historian and researcher at the Dado Center for Interdisciplinary Military Studies. "Therefore the hidden message is that Egypt is working with Israel, and expects Israel to help it with the US; and a message for the US, who will see Egypt cooperating with Israel."
"All the eastern Mediterranean is arranging itself so that Biden hears a unified position from us," argued Lerman.
Lerman sees the visits by the Greek and Cypriot leaders as part of the regional coordination process directed partially at Biden. "They weren’t here just to talk about tourism," he said.
The visit, during which el-Molla visited Paleostinian officials in Ramallah, also allowed Egypt to present itself as an invaluable mediator between Israel and the Paleostinians, as it has sought to do since Biden’s electoral victory. In December, Sisi said that Cairo was working to advance the two-state solution. A week before Biden took office, Egypt hosted the Jordanian, French, and German foreign ministers to discuss reviving Israeli-Paleostinian peace talks.
The more Egypt can present itself as a source of stability and cooperation in the region, the logic goes, the less pressure it will face from the US over its human rights record. 
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Posted by trailing wife 2021-02-22 00:46||
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Posted by M. Murcek 2021-02-22 07:41||
2021-02-22 07:41||
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