MAR 29, 2024 JLM 66°F 09:10 AM 02:10 AM EST
Biden’s handlers ditch Israeli-Greece-Cyprus EastMed pipeline project in order to appease Turkey

“US quietly ditches Greece’s EastMed pipeline project to ship Israeli gas to Europe,” by Ragip Soylu, Middle East Eye, January 11, 2022:

The US government silently abandoned an eastern Mediterranean pipeline project that would carry Israeli gas through Cyprus to Europe this week by submitting a non-paper to Athens explaining its reasons, Middle East Eye has learned.

The US non-paper, according to the Greek media, described the project as a “primary source of tension” and something “destabilising” the region by putting Turkey and regional countries at loggerheads.

A non-paper is an unofficial diplomatic correspondence.

A Greek diplomat, speaking anonymously to Middle East Eye, said the media reports were exaggerations.

Greek public broadcaster ERT claimed that the non-paper also listed three reasons to explain why the US no longer supports the project: environmental concerns, lack of economic and commercial viability, and creating tensions in the region.

The project angered Ankara in 2020 after Greece, Israel and the Greek Cypriot administration signed a deal to build a 1,900-km long natural gas pipeline in the eastern Mediterranean, passing through disputed maritime territories claimed by both Turkey and Greece.

The Trump administration and its secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, had been strong supporters of the project, as well as the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum that excludes Turkey, under the pretext that Europe needs to diversify its energy needs vis-a-vis Russia.

The US State Department, now under President Joe Biden, abruptly changed that policy on Sunday and said that Washington was shifting its focus to electricity interconnectors that can support both gas and renewable energy sources

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