Haaretz: Egypt Calls off Natural Gas Deal with Israel

Egypt’s national gas company EGAS announced Sunday that it will be cancelling its natural gas supply deal with Israel.

Egypt on Sunday notified EMG, the exporter that supplied Israel with natural gas, that the deal will be canceled.

A deal was reached in 2005 between the Israeli and Egyptian governments as part of a political agreement according to which Cairo undertook to allocate 7 billion cubic meters (BCM) of Egyptian gas to the Israeli market for 20 years, with an option to double the supply.

Sources close to EMG said in response, “Egypt does not understand what it is doing. This move will bring back the country – politically and economically – by 30 years, and this is a breach of the peace agreement with Israel.”

Egyptian militants have blown up the pipeline that was carrying gas to Israel at least 14 times since the popular uprising that ousted longtime Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, as Haaretz stated.