Page 14 - DMEA Week 22 2021

DMEA NEWS IN BRIEF DMEA

In October, Israeli state-owned Europe- office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin enjoyed close relations with Israel.
Asia Pipeline Company (EAPC) signed a Netanyahu nor Israeli National Security After Egypt blocked the Suez, Israel
memorandum of understanding with MED- Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat communicated allowed Iranian oil to be shipped from
RED Land Bridge, a company with both details of the deal to government departments. Ashkelon to Eilat, where it would be destined
Israeli and Emirati owners, to transport oil The development comes months after for European markets.
through the pipeline. contradictory statements by the head of the But when the Islamic Revolution erupted
It came amid a flurry of deals covering Egyptian Suez Canal Authority (SCA) over in 1979, Iran’s use of the pipeline ended
business and commercial sectors from the possible economic impact of the pipeline abruptly. Tehran took legal action over the
banking to filmmaking, after the UAE and on one of Cairo’s most important sources of pipeline and received $1.1 billion from Israel
Israeli agreed to normalise ties. revenue. in compensation following a 2016 Swiss court
The Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline, which Osama Al-Rabei told Egyptian state order.
links two Israeli ports on the Red and TV that the project could in the long-term Meanwhile, EAPC expanded, handling
Mediterranean seas respectively, came under decrease traffic through the canal by as oil from Russia and former Soviet states.
rocket attack by armed groups from Gaza much as 16 percent but later backtracked. Company operations were placed under a
during Israel’s latest campaign on the besieged Anonymous Egyptian officials said Rabie had strict gagging order by a Knesset committee
territory. downplayed the danger in order not to upset in 2017.
Meanwhile, Israeli officials remain opposed relations between Cairo and Abu Dhabi. In 2014, the secretive pipeline was the site
to the passage of large quantities of Emirati The pipeline, known as the Trans-Israel of a massive oil spill which impacted on a
oil through the pipeline due to environmental pipeline, has a chequered history. It is the desert and nature reserve in Israel.
concerns over potential oil spills. product of a joint venture between Israel and ALARABY
According to the Kan report, neither the Iran in 1968, when the then Shah of Iran

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