Egypt’s Foreign Minister Talks Tough On Israel

[Purveyor]

April 4, 2011

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Egypt's new foreign minister said the days of Israel getting cheap gas and strategic benefits are over.

In an interview Sunday on Egyptian television, Nabil al-Arabi said Egypt will demand that Israel pay the difference between the reduced prices it received and market value on the natural gas it purchased under deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

It was the first time an Egyptian official has spoken of a retroactive payment. The new oil minister has called for the price to be renegotiated on future purchases, according to Ynet.

Reports have circulated that the Egyptian government exports natural gas to Israel at prices lower than the cost of production.

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http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/04/04/3086693/egypts-foreign-minister-talks-tough-on-israel

[xchrom]

1. well this is going to be interesting. nt

[Poll_Blind]

2. Egypt "exports natural gas to Israel at prices lower than the cost of production"?

If it can be shown to be an accurate statement...wow. Obviously Nabil al-Arabi believes it to be true and that could imply that part of the multi-billion dollar U.S. support of the Mubarak dictatorship were down payments on subsidizing yet another aspect of Israel.

PB

[eyl]

3. Apparently

Egypt's Minister of Petroleum denied, back in March, that the prices of gas to Israel were as low as the Egyptian press was reporting (1.5 USD/BTU)*, though he declined to present the actual figures. He also pointed out that the prices of gas to Israel have already been revised in the past.

*unfortunately, I couldn't find an English cite; my source (in Hebrew) is YNet.

In addition, it seems that this is part of a general raising of gas export prices; I saw it mentioned that Egypt was intending to double the price of gas exported to Jordan, for example.