CAIRO: Exporting gas to Israel is religiously prohibited (haram) said Egypt's former Grand Mufti Nasr Farid Wasel in Alexandria on Wednesday as he called for a complete economic boycott of the Jewish State. Speaking at a seminar for international Islamic studies students, Wasel said, "You cannot support a country that fights Islam and Muslims and occupies the land of Palestine. In fact you must cut all economic ties with it. He added that Egypt's constitution is based on Islamic Sharia (jurisprudence) as its principal source of legislation, and therefore any law conflicting with Sharia was null and void. Egypt had only just signed a new deal to export gas to Israel last Tuesday, a day before Wasel's comments. The new deal spans a minimum of 17 years. There are significant economic ties between Egypt and Israel, and a meeting last Monday between foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Israeli foreign ministry director general Yossi Gal agreed to expand economic ties even further. "In the course of the talks, the parties also agreed to intensify the bilateral dialogue and to strengthen the economic ties between their respective countries, an Israeli foreign ministry statement read. On Tuesday the Egyptian/Israeli consortium Egyptian Mediterranean Gas (EMG) finalized terms on a new deal to supply gas to the Israeli company Dorad Energy, an agreement that was initially struck in 2007. The terms of the new deal are that EMG will supply around 12.5 - 16 billion cubic meters of gas to Dorad Energy over a period of 17-22 years at a cost of $2.1-3.3 billion. According to the new deal, Egypt will sell gas to Israel for $4.5 per million BTU, which is a marked improvement on the previous deal reported at $1.5 per million BTU. The original gas deal had been met with vehement local opposition because of the initially favorable price, which was felt to be costing Egypt a loss of millions of dollars per day considering that the world market price was around $4 at the time. There is also objection to supplying Israel with cheap gas while the Gaza Strip remains under siege and suffering from crippling fuel shortages.
