CAIRO: Israel's former Minister of Infrastructure Yousef Britsky, stated how there is no closed deal binding Egypt to export natural gas to Israel. In a conversation with former Egyptian petroleum minister, Sameh Fahmy, he learned that Egypt is not bound by any contracts to supply Israel with natural gas, or supply Israel with financial compensation for gas in case of a suspension of current gas export. This was clearly contradicting the claims put forward by the former Egypt government of Hosni Mubarak, who said that the gas agreement was fixed by a protocol of the Camp David agreement of 1979. Fahmy said “the Egyptian government will not sell gas directly to Israel, but it will through a company and Israel will have to manage it through it [the company].” Britsky refused to sign the Egyptian-Israeli gas treaty of 2005, which had been negotiated since 2003, after he had a disagreement with former Israeli PM Ariel Sharon. Following his refusal, Sharon appointed Benjamin Ben-Eliezer to sign the deal instead. Britsky had reasons not to sign the treaty: “[I] rejected the agreement out of the conviction that the agreement would not last long, despite the contract was supposed to last 20 years. The Egyptian government did not provide a guarantee through provision of a field for long-term gas production,” he said. He added that “the contract did not provide adequate safeguards for Tel-Aviv,” he stated, adding that his refusal also had a backdrop of “security issues.” He feared the treaty did not provide Israelis with sufficient security, as the pipelines are “ripe” for attack, as has been seen currently in the al-Arish area since the outbreak of the Egyptian revolution of January 25. The question arises whether the treaty signed in 2005 under the reign of Mubarak is still valid. Britsky stated that he sent a letter to Sharon in 2004, saying that gas exports will only take place under the Mubarak regime. As the former Mubarak top officials have been subject to a serious “clean-out” since the revolution, unpleasant truths have come to the spotlight. Former minister Fahmy is now charged with “misuse of public funds by selling gas to a foreign state at prices below international standards.” The Egyptian-Israeli gas-trade has been draining, both for the Egyptian economy and self-esteem. As Egypt has been politically dependent on the support of Israel, Egyptian natural resources were sold for very little under Mubarak. Commenting on the scandals revealed after the fall of Mubarak, Ahmed al-Sayyed al-Naggar of al-Ahram newspaper, regrets the scandalous theft of public funds. He said: “Why did Israel recieve the gas at this low cost? It's politics. Israel was Mubaraks guarantee of survival. As long as he was protected by Netanyahu, he was secured American support and $1.5 billion of military aid.” Currently, Israel is not receiving gas from Egypt, as the pipelines were bombed recently and have been shut down until repairs can be made. BM
