CAIRO: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is pushing Egypt to ship natural gas to Europe through the Nabucca Pipeline, a “gas bridge,” via Asia. This access line will directly cut out Israel and Cyprus. Current relations between Turkey and Israel are continuing to worsen, and this change of route of Egypt's natural gas is seen as another political ploy to disturb the relations between the two countries. Since the overthrow of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Turkey continues to work closely with Egypt. Current negotiations have led to acts of outrage and violence such as the attack on the Israeli embassy in Cairo by Egyptian demonstrators. Changing the shipping method of the natural gas is pressuring Israel to focus on developing it's own natural gas resources. There is speculation that these talks between Egypt and Turkey is Ankara's way of influencing in favor of the Nabucco Pipeline agreement that was signed in 2009 in Ankara. The Nabucco Pipeline agreement favors Turkey and several other European countries (Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria) in which the countries will receive natural gas supplies from Azerbaijan, Iraq, Turkmenistan and possibly Iran. According to Israel's Globes financial news site, Erdogan wants to build an energy coalition against natural gas production agreements between Israel and Southern Cyprus. Israel's Globes article also claims that Egypt has a natural gas pipeline with both Jordan and Syria. This makes extending the Nabucco pipeline network through Turkey, from northern Iraq, and into Europe ending in ViennaAustria. Erdogan states this plan for the Nabucco pipeline will give Turkey more control over a natural gas system putting Turkey in direct competition with Russia's natural gas business. This agreement is also an answer to Israel's natural Leviathan gas reserves and those also in Greek Cyprus. At the end of the deal, this will further promote Turkey's goal of being a connecting, influential power in the region which will potentially now include the energy sector. If Erdogan's natural gas route through Turkey does not pan out with the Egyptians, Cairo officials may start looking into solar energy projects that potentially have been Plan B for quite some time. BM
