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Egypt's Revocation of the Natural Gas Agreement with Israel: Strategic Implications

(Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University) Shmuel Even - On April 22, 2012, the national Egyptian gas companies, EGAS and EGPC, announced the revocation of the agreement to supply natural gas to Israel. In 2010, Egypt supplied the Israel Electric Company (IEC) with 37% of its gas consumption; in 2011, that dropped to 18% because of attacks on the pipeline in northern Sinai. The revocation of the agreement is a decision that was clearly made, or at least approved, at Egypt's highest political levels. Stopping the flow of Egyptian gas puts the last nail in the coffin of one of the only manifestations of normalization between Israel and Egypt. It seems that the peace agreement is still viewed in Egypt as a strategic necessity rather than the basis for peaceful relations. From the perspective of Israel's energy market, the revocation of the agreement is preferable to its continuation under the current circumstances. The writer, a senior research fellow at INSS, retired from the IDF in 1999 following a long career in the Intelligence Branch.
2012-05-09 00:00:00
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