A new and ambitious project to build natural gas pipelines will put Israel in direct confrontation with Turkey in the Mediterranean.

In a report published by the American "Bloomberg" website, author Seth Franzman said that the Israeli government approved last week a project to transfer gas to Europe by sea via Cyprus and Greece.

The length of this line is estimated at 1,900 km, and it links the natural gas fields in the Eastern Mediterranean basin with European markets. After years of discussion, this $ 6 billion project received a strong boost last January after signing an agreement in Athens between the President Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Greek and Cypriot counterparts.

This project, "EastMed", will put Israel on the path of collision with Turkey, which has declared its right to own an important part of the maritime spaces in the eastern Mediterranean, strengthened its position through a maritime agreement with Libya, and is exploring gas and conducting naval military exercises in the region, These steps increased tension with the Greek neighbor.

Strained relationships

Israeli-Turkish relations have been deteriorating for years. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made support for Palestine an axis of his foreign policy, and the ruling Justice and Development Party is taking every opportunity to attack Israel. During a recent TV appearance, Erdogan said that returning the Hagia Sophia from a museum to a mosque is a step towards The liberation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and Israel has long considered Turkish support to Hamas a provocation.

The writer warns that the dispute over the rights to explore gas and pipelines in this region will increase tension and upward rhetoric between the two countries. In last December, a Turkish navy ship harassed an Israeli research vessel near Cyprus, and the Israeli annual military assessment ranked Turkey for the first Once upon a time it represented a "challenge".

Other voices are also expected to rise after the Israeli move, as Russia opened a natural gas line to Turkey through the "TurkStream" project, which caused concern in Washington about Moscow getting a passage to Europe via Turkey.

Cyprus and Greece announced their concern about the Libyan-Turkish agreement on the demarcation of the maritime border, which intersects with the planned route of the "East Med" project. France also got involved in this dispute, as Emmanuel Macron called the European Union to impose sanctions on Turkey, because of what he considered a breach of the sovereignty of Cyprus and Greece.

Russia has opened a natural gas line to Turkey through the Turkish Stream project (Getty Images)

Israeli targets

The author believes that Israel's primary goal in the Mediterranean is to build an alliance with Greece and Cyprus, and this matter is in line with the troubles and interests of Egypt and France, which are disturbing the company of the United Arab Emirates with the Turkish military intervention in the Libyan Civil War.

These developments reflect a shift in the directions of Israel, which in the past did not play a major role in the problems of the Mediterranean. The Israeli navy has never been seen as a large naval fleet, and it relies in particular on submarines and cruisers to impose its strength even outside its maritime borders.

The writer notes that the "EastMed" project was progressing in a slow pace compared to the "Nord Stream" project, the "Turkish Stream" project and other pipelines, and for this reason Israel was reluctant to join Greece, Cyprus and Egypt in standing against the Libyan maritime agreement. Turkish.

However, the Israeli-Greek Cypriot project may receive a strong boost after Chevron acquired Noble Energy, which produces gas from the Israeli Leviathan field.

And while Turkey is strengthening its role in Libya, stepping up surveillance and military exercises, a clash with Israel and Greece appears inevitable, and Israel's goal will be to encourage the United States, the European Union and Russia as well to help them find a solution.

But in any case, since Tel Aviv decided to enter these waters full of disputes and tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean, it cannot avoid getting involved in problems, according to the report.