"The inability to complete a pipeline deal would hurt Turkish ambitions to become a regional natural gas transit center."
"Bloomberg" reports that the anti-Israeli rhetoric of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is jeopardizing potential collaboration between Israel and Turkey to build a natural gas pipeline to Europe, and his ambition to make Turkey a regional energy hub.
Last week, Erdogan blamed Israel for the military coup in Egypt and the bloody clashes in which hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters were killed. Erdogan's accusations were openly condemned by the US, even though Turkey is the only Muslim-majority country in NATO.
"Rising tensions between the former allies risk the ability of Israel’s Delek Group Ltd. (TASE: DLEKG) and Turkey’s Zorlu Holding AS to negotiate a pipeline from Israel to Turkey that could feed markets in Europe. While trade has been resilient to the souring of diplomatic ties, building the $2 billion pipeline requires inter-government cooperation for a long-term commercial agreement. Their inability to complete a pipeline deal would hurt Turkish ambitions to become a regional transit center and mean continued dependence on Russia and Iran for gas," Bloomberg writes.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 25, 2013
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013
Nadav Neuman and Hillel Koren