Kεραυνοί” από το Αμερικανοεβραϊκό ινστιτούτο- Τελεσίγραφο σε Μπάιντεν: ”Μην δώσεις F-16 στη Τουρκία, στήριξε την ΕKεραυνοί” από το Αμερικανοεβραϊκό ινστιτούτο- Τελεσίγραφο σε Μπάιντεν: ”Μην δώσεις F-16 στη Τουρκία, στήριξε την Ελλάδα-Κίνδυνος σύγκρουσης σε Αιγαίο-Μεσόγειο”
Για άλλη μία φορά, το Αμερικανοεβραϊκό ινστιτούτο στηρίζει τον Ελληνισμό και στέλνει το Σωστο μήνυμα στην κυβέρνηση Μπάιντεν!
Για όσους δεν ξέρουν ακριβώς το γνωστό JINSA είναι το Jewish Institute of National Security of America . Ο σκοπός του : strengthens American security and promotes strategic ties to like minded allies!!
Παρατίθεται το αυθεντικό κείμενο του σχετικού memo :
U.S. Leadership Needed on East Med Energy
Jonathan Ruhe
Director of Foreign Policy
Samuel Millner
Policy Analyst
Last week’s EU-Israel-Egypt natural gas agreement shows how the Eastern Mediterranean offers valuable oppor- tunities to help reduce the dependence of America’s European allies on Russian energy. However, the peaceful development and transportation of these resources by Greece, Cyprus, Egypt and Israel also faces growing challenges from Turkey, Hezbollah and potentially others. To fully realize the region’s potential to advance Eu- rope’s energy security in the face of Moscow’s aggression, the United States must reverse its hands-off approach and support its partners’ proactive heavy lifting to bring Eastern Mediterranean energy online – including by appointing a Special Envoy for the region and backing the expansion of natural gas infrastructure regionwide
What Happened?
• This month, several U.S. partners in the Eastern Mediterranean have accelerated their long-standing efforts to boost energy cooperation and grow their natural gas exports:
» On June 6, Israel began operating a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit at its Karish offshore field, from which natural gas subsequently can be exported.
» That same day, Greek and Israeli energy officials discussed accelerating construction of the EuroAsia Interconnector which would link the power grids of Greece, Cyprus and Israel, currently set to be com- pleted next year.
» On June 15, the European Union (EU) finalized a deal with Israel and Egypt whereby increased Israeli natural gas deliveries to Egypt will be converted to liquefied natural gas (LNG) for transport to Euro- pean terminals.
• At the same time, regional tensions remain high and could jeopardize the development of these and other energy resources, while also heightening risks of conflict more generally:
» Lebanon insists Israel’s FPSO is operating in waters that are disputed between the two countries, and Hezbollah has threatened to retaliate forcefully.
» Meanwhile Turkey announced it would begin exploring for energy in Greece’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the Aegean Sea, while also explicitly threatening to challenge Greek sovereignty there
Why Is It Important?
• By working assiduously to help create a “southern gas corridor” for Europe, America’s partners in the Eastern Mediterranean are advancing the U.S. national security interest of reducing Europe’s heavy de- pendence on Russian energy.
» The EU, which relied on Russia for 40 percent of its natural gas consumption before Russia invaded Ukraine in February, seeks to cut this dependence by as much as two-thirds by early next year – half of which it intends to accomplish through heightened LNG imports.
» Unsubtly, on June 16 Russia cut natural gas deliveries to Germany and Italy while the latter two coun- tries’ leaders visited Kyiv, after completely halting natural gas flows to Poland and Bulgaria in Apri
– That same day Russia’s deputy prime minister warned “this is not the limit in our opinion “Everything can be much more critical.”
• Though home to some of the world’s largest offshore natural gas discoveries in recent years, Israel, Cyprus and Egypt have struggled to develop export infrastructure for these supplies.
» Since 2009, roughly two trillion cubic meters of offshore natural gas have been discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the region is estimated to hold an additional two trillion cubic meters of undiscovered reserves; by comparison, the EU imported 155 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2021.
» Egypt boasts significant offshore natural gas reserves, two large LNG export facilities and pipelines bringing natural gas from Israel – yet its ability to export natural gas is severely constrained by high domestic demand and limited spare capacity in its pipelines and LNG terminals.
– Israel records it’s highest ever natural gas flows to Egypt in the first quarter of 2022,but exporting its own rising production via Egypt – in line with the EU’s recent deal with both countries – requires greater pipeline flows from Israel to Egypt, as was agreed in the recent EU deal with both countries.
» An EastMed Pipeline to bring Cypriot and Israeli natural gas to the EU via Greece faces financial and technical hurdles as well as political opposition after the Biden administration peremptorily dropped U.S. support for the project in January 2022.
– Nevertheless, the EU and Israel have repeatedly re-endorsed the pipeline in the wake of Russia ‘s invasion of Ukraine.
» Since at least 2018, Turkey’s efforts to obstruct or deter peaceful Greek and Cypriot energy exploration through bellicose rhetoric, gunboat diplomacy and other military harassment has threatened the viability of future energy exploration in the region, as well as projects like the EastMed Pipeline and EuroAsia Interconnector which would cross Ankara’s expansive (unrecognized) maritime claims in the Eastern Mediterranean.
– AsTurkey held large military exercises along the Aegean in June ,PresidentErdoganthreatened to use force if Greece does not demilitarize the Dodecanese islands, and he suggested the growing U.S. military presence in Greece directly threatens Turkey.
› In response, Greece published 16 maps detailing Ankara’s revisionist and illegitimate claims to Aegean islands and surrounding offshore waters.
– Its later threat to explore for energy in Greek’s EEZ and escalating armed military overflies over Greek Aegean islands echoes how Turkey almost triggered a naval conflict in 2020 by sending drill- ships and warships into Greek and Cypriot EEZs.
– UnlikeGreece,Cyprus,Egypt and Israel,which have agreed many of their maritime boundaries keeping with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Turkey’s self-declared “Blue Homeland” directly contravenes these boundaries and encompasses much of the region by claiming the entire continental shelf.
» Similarly, as Hezbollah’s recent threats indicate, the contested Israeli-Lebanese maritime boundary inhibits peaceful energy exploration and raises the risk of broader conflict.
» Throughout, even as its regional partners have worked together more concertedly and frequently on diplomatic and energy cooperation, the United States has largely and conspicuously avoided playing any sustained roles in promoting development or addressing simmering regional tensions, creating opportunities for Russia, China and Iran to move into the ensuing vacuum.
• Meanwhile, Greece is positioning itself as an energy import and transit hub between the Eastern Mediter- ranean and southeastern Europe, which currently depends nearly-exclusively on Russia for natural gas.
» In addition to the EastMed pipeline and electricity interconnectors with Cyprus, Egypt and Israel, Ath- ens is building a regasification unit at Alexandroupoli with U.S. assistance to import LNG from Egypt and elsewhere.
» Greece also is building the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) pipeline to send natural gas from Alexandroupoli to much of the Balkans and possibly as far as Ukraine.
•What Should the United States Do Next?
• As part of its larger effort to impose costs on Russian aggression and reduce Europe’s vulnerabilities to Moscow, the Biden administration should harness the significant efforts of its partners to date and ac- tively embrace an all-of-the-above approach to peaceful Eastern Mediterranean energy development, including by:
» Aligning U.S. policy with its EU partners by supporting peaceful development of natural gas as a criti- cal piece of the continent’s energy security – a “bridge” – while it reduces dependence on Russia and transitions to more renewable energy sources. The current lack of natural gas alternatives to Russia is, counterproductively, compelling much of Europe to increase much less environmentally-friendly coal consumption.
– This entails reversing the administration’s current opposition to the East Med pipeline and supporting the EU and Israel as they make their own financial and technical decisions about the project’s future;
– This also entails backing the development of additional natural gas transit capacity ,includingLNG capacity in Egypt and Greece, as well as additional pipeline throughput from Israel to Egypt and from Greece to the Balkans.
› This also could benefit the United States strategically and economically, given its rising status as one of the world’s leading LNG exporters.
» Appointing a Special Envoy for the Eastern Mediterranean, to build on ongoing efforts to mediate mar- itime disputes (e.g., Israel-Lebanon, Greece-Turkey) and to work with regional frameworks promoting peaceful energy development:
– S/he could revive “3+1”format of active,regular US Greece-Cyprus-Israel “trilateral” forum on diplomatic, energy and strategic ties, and should consider initiating a similar U.S role in the Greece-Cyprus-Egypt trilateral;
A special envoy also should explore the United States officially joining the East Med Gas Forum (currently it is a permanent observer) to better coordinate regional natural gas development with its European and Middle Eastern partners.
• The Biden administration also should avoid approving the sale of advanced F-16 fighter aircraft and mod- ernization kits to Turkey until and unless Ankara begins displaying more cooperative behavior – foremost, by concretely de-escalating its overflights of Greek islands, many of which employ F-16s.
This brief was made possible by the support of the Gettler Family Foundation and a portion of the research was conducted on the Benjamin Gettler International Policy Trip.
Το λινκ για το τόσο σημαντικό αυτό έγγραφο είναι το εξής :
https://jinsa.org/…/2022/06/JINSA_20220621_EastMed_v2.pdfλλάδα-Κίνδυνος σύγκρουσης σε Αιγαίο-Μεσόγειο”
Για άλλη μία φορά, το Αμερικανοεβραϊκό ινστιτούτο στηρίζει τον Ελληνισμό και στέλνει το Σωστο μήνυμα στην κυβέρνηση Μπάιντεν!
Για όσους δεν ξέρουν ακριβώς το γνωστό JINSA είναι το Jewish Institute of National Security of America . Ο σκοπός του : strengthens American security and promotes strategic ties to like minded allies!!
Παραθέτω το αυθεντικό κείμενο του σχετικού memo :
U.S. Leadership Needed on East Med Energy
Jonathan Ruhe
Director of Foreign Policy
Samuel Millner
Policy Analyst
Last week’s EU-Israel-Egypt natural gas agreement shows how the Eastern Mediterranean offers valuable oppor- tunities to help reduce the dependence of America’s European allies on Russian energy. However, the peaceful development and transportation of these resources by Greece, Cyprus, Egypt and Israel also faces growing challenges from Turkey, Hezbollah and potentially others. To fully realize the region’s potential to advance Eu- rope’s energy security in the face of Moscow’s aggression, the United States must reverse its hands-off approach and support its partners’ proactive heavy lifting to bring Eastern Mediterranean energy online – including by appointing a Special Envoy for the region and backing the expansion of natural gas infrastructure regionwide
What Happened?
• This month, several U.S. partners in the Eastern Mediterranean have accelerated their long-standing efforts to boost energy cooperation and grow their natural gas exports:
» On June 6, Israel began operating a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit at its Karish offshore field, from which natural gas subsequently can be exported.
» That same day, Greek and Israeli energy officials discussed accelerating construction of the EuroAsia Interconnector which would link the power grids of Greece, Cyprus and Israel, currently set to be com- pleted next year.
» On June 15, the European Union (EU) finalized a deal with Israel and Egypt whereby increased Israeli natural gas deliveries to Egypt will be converted to liquefied natural gas (LNG) for transport to Euro- pean terminals.
• At the same time, regional tensions remain high and could jeopardize the development of these and other energy resources, while also heightening risks of conflict more generally:
» Lebanon insists Israel’s FPSO is operating in waters that are disputed between the two countries, and Hezbollah has threatened to retaliate forcefully.
» Meanwhile Turkey announced it would begin exploring for energy in Greece’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the Aegean Sea, while also explicitly threatening to challenge Greek sovereignty there
Why Is It Important?
• By working assiduously to help create a “southern gas corridor” for Europe, America’s partners in the Eastern Mediterranean are advancing the U.S. national security interest of reducing Europe’s heavy de- pendence on Russian energy.
» The EU, which relied on Russia for 40 percent of its natural gas consumption before Russia invaded Ukraine in February, seeks to cut this dependence by as much as two-thirds by early next year – half of which it intends to accomplish through heightened LNG imports.
» Unsubtly, on June 16 Russia cut natural gas deliveries to Germany and Italy while the latter two coun- tries’ leaders visited Kyiv, after completely halting natural gas flows to Poland and Bulgaria in Apri
– That same day Russia’s deputy prime minister warned “this is not the limit in our opinion “Everything can be much more critical.”
• Though home to some of the world’s largest offshore natural gas discoveries in recent years, Israel, Cyprus and Egypt have struggled to develop export infrastructure for these supplies.
» Since 2009, roughly two trillion cubic meters of offshore natural gas have been discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the region is estimated to hold an additional two trillion cubic meters of undiscovered reserves; by comparison, the EU imported 155 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2021.
» Egypt boasts significant offshore natural gas reserves, two large LNG export facilities and pipelines bringing natural gas from Israel – yet its ability to export natural gas is severely constrained by high domestic demand and limited spare capacity in its pipelines and LNG terminals.
– Israel records it’s highest ever natural gas flows to Egypt in the first quarter of 2022,but exporting its own rising production via Egypt – in line with the EU’s recent deal with both countries – requires greater pipeline flows from Israel to Egypt, as was agreed in the recent EU deal with both countries.
» An EastMed Pipeline to bring Cypriot and Israeli natural gas to the EU via Greece faces financial and technical hurdles as well as political opposition after the Biden administration peremptorily dropped U.S. support for the project in January 2022.
– Nevertheless, the EU and Israel have repeatedly re-endorsed the pipeline in the wake of Russia ‘s invasion of Ukraine.
» Since at least 2018, Turkey’s efforts to obstruct or deter peaceful Greek and Cypriot energy exploration through bellicose rhetoric, gunboat diplomacy and other military harassment has threatened the viability of future energy exploration in the region, as well as projects like the EastMed Pipeline and EuroAsia Interconnector which would cross Ankara’s expansive (unrecognized) maritime claims in the Eastern Mediterranean.
– AsTurkey held large military exercises along the Aegean in June ,PresidentErdoganthreatened to use force if Greece does not demilitarize the Dodecanese islands, and he suggested the growing U.S. military presence in Greece directly threatens Turkey.
› In response, Greece published 16 maps detailing Ankara’s revisionist and illegitimate claims to Aegean islands and surrounding offshore waters.
– Its later threat to explore for energy in Greek’s EEZ and escalating armed military overflies over Greek Aegean islands echoes how Turkey almost triggered a naval conflict in 2020 by sending drill- ships and warships into Greek and Cypriot EEZs.
– UnlikeGreece,Cyprus,Egypt and Israel,which have agreed many of their maritime boundaries keeping with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Turkey’s self-declared “Blue Homeland” directly contravenes these boundaries and encompasses much of the region by claiming the entire continental shelf.
» Similarly, as Hezbollah’s recent threats indicate, the contested Israeli-Lebanese maritime boundary inhibits peaceful energy exploration and raises the risk of broader conflict.
» Throughout, even as its regional partners have worked together more concertedly and frequently on diplomatic and energy cooperation, the United States has largely and conspicuously avoided playing any sustained roles in promoting development or addressing simmering regional tensions, creating opportunities for Russia, China and Iran to move into the ensuing vacuum.
• Meanwhile, Greece is positioning itself as an energy import and transit hub between the Eastern Mediter- ranean and southeastern Europe, which currently depends nearly-exclusively on Russia for natural gas.
» In addition to the EastMed pipeline and electricity interconnectors with Cyprus, Egypt and Israel, Ath- ens is building a regasification unit at Alexandroupoli with U.S. assistance to import LNG from Egypt and elsewhere.
» Greece also is building the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) pipeline to send natural gas from Alexandroupoli to much of the Balkans and possibly as far as Ukraine.
•What Should the United States Do Next?
• As part of its larger effort to impose costs on Russian aggression and reduce Europe’s vulnerabilities to Moscow, the Biden administration should harness the significant efforts of its partners to date and ac- tively embrace an all-of-the-above approach to peaceful Eastern Mediterranean energy development, including by:
» Aligning U.S. policy with its EU partners by supporting peaceful development of natural gas as a criti- cal piece of the continent’s energy security – a “bridge” – while it reduces dependence on Russia and transitions to more renewable energy sources. The current lack of natural gas alternatives to Russia is, counterproductively, compelling much of Europe to increase much less environmentally-friendly coal consumption.
– This entails reversing the administration’s current opposition to the East Med pipeline and supporting the EU and Israel as they make their own financial and technical decisions about the project’s future;
– This also entails backing the development of additional natural gas transit capacity ,includingLNG capacity in Egypt and Greece, as well as additional pipeline throughput from Israel to Egypt and from Greece to the Balkans.
› This also could benefit the United States strategically and economically, given its rising status as one of the world’s leading LNG exporters.
» Appointing a Special Envoy for the Eastern Mediterranean, to build on ongoing efforts to mediate mar- itime disputes (e.g., Israel-Lebanon, Greece-Turkey) and to work with regional frameworks promoting peaceful energy development:
– S/he could revive “3+1”format of active,regular US Greece-Cyprus-Israel “trilateral” forum on diplomatic, energy and strategic ties, and should consider initiating a similar U.S role in the Greece-Cyprus-Egypt trilateral;
A special envoy also should explore the United States officially joining the East Med Gas Forum (currently it is a permanent observer) to better coordinate regional natural gas development with its European and Middle Eastern partners.
• The Biden administration also should avoid approving the sale of advanced F-16 fighter aircraft and mod- ernization kits to Turkey until and unless Ankara begins displaying more cooperative behavior – foremost, by concretely de-escalating its overflights of Greek islands, many of which employ F-16s.
This brief was made possible by the support of the Gettler Family Foundation and a portion of the research was conducted on the Benjamin Gettler International Policy Trip.
Το λινκ για το τόσο σημαντικό αυτό έγγραφο είναι το εξής :
https://jinsa.org/…/2022/06/JINSA_20220621_EastMed_v2.pdf