TEL AVIV (Israel) – Israel’s Environment Minister stated Thursday that a clandestine oil agreement that would have made a scuba diving paradise into a route for Emirati oil headed to Western markets was effectively blocked.
Tamar Zandberg said that, despite a Justice Ministry opinion stating that her office had the authority and authority to limit the activities by the Israeli government-owned corporation signing onto the deal that she was not able to realize the agreement.
She said that although the deal is on paper, there is no way to make it real. They won’t allow more tankers to enter than the current permit allows. The agreement cannot be realized.
The secret deal would have greatly increased the number oil tankers arriving in Eilat, Israel’s resort city. It was reached last year between the Europe–Asia Pipeline Company (Israeli government-owned corporation) and MED–RED Land Bridge (Israeli-Emirati joint venture), following the historic agreement establishing formal diplomatic ties with Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
Senior officials from the former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, including his former foreign and energy ministers, said they didn’t know about the agreement until it was announced last January after the accords were signed by the White House.
Initially hailed as a move to cement fledgling diplomatic relations and further Israels energy ambitions. However, the new Israeli government ordered a review. Following outrage from environmental groups who warned that the increased oil tanker traffic would lead to the destruction of the Gulf of Eilats reefs, the new Israeli government ordered a review. Investors were upset and it could have a diplomatic spat between Israel’s Gulf allies.
The Environmental Protection Ministry had to stop the company from expanding its operations during the review. This limited the number of tankers that could enter the Gulf of Eilat and effectively blocked the deal.
Israeli environmental groups had requested that the Supreme Court cancel the agreement and halt oil shipment. They cited the corporations questionable safety record, and the risk of supertankers being parked alongside fragile coral ecosystems in Eilats. After the Justice Ministry’s decision not to side with the Environmental Protection Ministry, the groups retracted their lawsuit earlier in the month.
The EAPC pipeline company was established in 1960 to transport Iranian oil to Israel. This was during friendly relations between the two countries. Its operations are kept secret ostensibly to protect security.