AP Environment Minister Tamar Zandberg said Thursday that a clandestine oil deal that would have turned a scuba divers’ paradise into a waypoint for Emirati oil headed for Western markets has effectively been blocked.
Zandberg told Army Radio that — following a Justice Ministry opinion that her office had the authority to limit the activities of the Israeli government-owned corporation signed onto the deal — “the agreement cannot be realized.”
“The deal exists on paper but there is no way to realize it,” she said. “They won’t bring in more tankers than what the current permit allows. That is, the agreement cannot be realized.”
The secret deal would have greatly increased the number oil tankers loading and unloading in Eilat, Israel’s resort city. It was made last year by the Europe-Asia Pipeline Company, formerly known as Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company, an Israeli government-owned company, and MEDRED Land Bridge a joint Israeli-Emirati enterprise following the historic diplomatic ties that were established between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
Senior officials in former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government including his former energy, foreign and environment ministers said they didn’t know about the deal until it was announced last year after the accords were signed at the White House.
Initially hailed as a move that could cement fledgling diplomatic ties and further Israel’s energy ambitions, the new Israeli government sworn in this year ordered a review. That followed an outcry from environmental groups, who warned the increased oil tanker traffic would threaten to eradicate the Gulf of Eilat’s coral reefs. The decision upset investors and risked a diplomatic spat with Israel’s Gulf allies.
Environment Minister Tamar Zandberg visits Israel’s pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai, on October 4, 2021. (Karim Sahib/AFP)
During the review, the Environmental Protection Ministry froze the company’s planned expansion of operations, limiting the number of tankers allowed into the Gulf of Eilat and effectively blocking the deal.
Israeli environmental groups had asked the country’s Supreme Court to cancel the agreement and halt oil shipments, citing the corporation’s questionable safety record and the risk posed by parking supertankers alongside Eilat’s fragile coral ecosystems. The groups pulled their lawsuit earlier this month following the Justice Ministry’s decision to side with the Environmental Protection Ministry.
The EAPC was a pipeline company that was established to transport Iranian oil to Israel in the 1960s. Its operations are kept secret, ostensibly because of security concerns.
