As Israeli offshore gas came on stream, the jockeying for a stake was in full spate. Netanyahu is believed to have been hustled by Washington into picking Turkey as Israel’s energy partner rather than Russia.

Vladimir Putin’s push for a stake of Gazprom in Israel’s offshore Leviathan, one of the world’s largest gas finds in the last decade, was cut short by Washington which brought in an Australian partner and promised the gas field protection under the US missile shield.

Iran is alarmed by Azerbaijan’s soaring trade relations with Israel, its ambitions to expand into Mediterranean oil and gas through Israel and large arms purchases from the Jewish state.

Monday, April 24, the Obama administration stepped in to damp down the military frictions developing between Jerusalem and Cairo, fanned further this week by a dispute over the suspension of Egyptian gas to Israel. Earlier that day, Egypt’s military ruler Field Marshal Muhammad Tantawi said: “If anyone comes near Egypt’s border, we will break their leg.” Egyptian Islamists and Bedouin groups have since announced they would mark Israel’s Independence Day Thursday with a mass assault on the Sinai memorials of Israel’s fallen soldiers.

A triangular bond is formed by Israel, Nicosia and Athens for joint gas field exploration and production secured by the shared umbrella of the Israeli Navy. On January 9, Cyprus Defense Minister Demetris Eliades arrived in Tel Aviv for the signing of two defense pacts with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

  Moscow and Rome are angling for contracts to build and operate the future pipeline to Europe. The Unites States holds the edge in the bidding.

Cypriot President Demetris Christofias has warned Turkey to stop its warships shelling the strip of water dividing the Cypriot and Israeli gas exploration zones in the eastern Mediterranean.
debkafile's military forces report that Wednesday, Dec. 21, Turkish warships began turning their guns on the narrow strip dividing Israel's Leviathan gas field from Block 12 of Cyprus's Exclusive Economic Zone-EEZ. Estimates of the sizes of the two fields have been substantially upped of late. Both see prospects of becoming major gas suppliers to Europe.

Turkey's Operation Barbarossa aims to establish a naval and air force presence on six world seas while making a grab to wrest oil and gas from Israel and Greek Cyprus (Jews and Christians). DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military experts note that the Turkish Navy has 19 frigates, 14 submarines, 7 corvettes, 75 navy aircraft and 108 fast attack craft, manned by a total of 48,600 personnel. They are not up to challenging the US and European Mediterranean fleets and would be outmatched qualitatively even by Israel's much smaller navy ...

By ordering Turkish warships to escort aid ships to Gaza and stop Israel's offshore gas exploitation, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is muscling his way into the eastern Mediterranean and taking his dispute with Israel to the brink. He is also challenging Greece and Cyprus. Cairo and Riyadh are ...

Egyptian authorities plan to follow up on the permanent opening of the Gaza Strip Rafah crossing Saturday, May 28 - so ending its four-year siege - by liquidating EMG (the East Mediterranean Gas Company) and halting the supply of Egyptian gas to Israel.
Both are violations of Egypt's international commitments and both meet the demands of the Palestinian Hamas. They are also consistent with Cairo's post-revolutionary rulers' policy to distance themselves from the former peace relations with Israel.

The prospects of Egypt resuming its gas supplies to Israel dropped to zero Thursday, March 3 when Egypt's state security prosecutor Abdel Magid Mahmud announced that deposed president Hosni Mubarak would be summoned for questioning next week about allegedly corrupt deals for selling Israel Egyptian gas at knock-down prices, debkafile's Cairo sources report. He also plans to issue arrest warrants against Israeli and American partners in EMG, the firm set up jointly for the gas deal. The military rulers are not interfering.

The pipeline carrying Saudi and Gulf oil from the Red Sea to the Egyptian Mediterranean is idle.  Although Cairo and the owners, Arab Petroleum Pipelines, say SudMed is working normally, debkafile's sources confirm the pipeline, which carries 3.1 million barrels of Gulf oil per day from the Red Sea to Egypt's Mediterranean coast, was inoperative Monday and Tuesday morning, Feb. 14 and 15, due to a general strike. The pipeline supplying Israel and Jordan with Egyptian gas is also inactive since Hamas blew it up Feb. 5.

The UN has turned down Lebanon's demand to intervene in delineating its sea border following Israel's Leviathan gas strike in the Mediterranean, billed as the world's biggest in a decade. Cyprus responded by announcing the Texas-based US firm Noble Energy - partners with Israel's Delek Energy group in Leviathan – had been licensed to explore a 1,250 square-mile island block bordering on Israeli waters.
Turkey, Syria and Lebanon prepare to fight joint Israel-Cypriot energy exploration ventures. They may be joined by Egypt and Palestinians. 

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's first visit to Israel in mid-January, part of a Middle East tour, will signify a major switch in Kremlin Middle East policy to warmer relations with Israel and cooler ties with Iran, Syria and the radical Palestinian Hamas. The Russians see a chance of stepping into US shoes in Middle East diplomacy, having come around to certain Israeli positions. They are also seriously eyeing investment in Israel's Mediterranean gas finds.

Russia's Vladimir Putin has reached out to the beleaguered Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri to get in on the ground floor of the as-yet untapped Lebanese offshore energy fields, debkafile reports. He has also tested the ground for dipping into the Israeli gas bonanza, while offering Turkey substantial benefits in Moscow's Lebanese scheme. If Putin's multi-faceted plan works, Russia and Turkey will have a stake in Hariri staying in power and a stable Lebanon.