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“Battle for influence in the Mediterranean” is the title of a lengthy article in the Welt on Sunday that refers to the upcoming delivery (November 11) of the first of four German ThyssenKrupp corvettes to the Israeli navy. According to the German newspaper Magen (shield in Hebrew), Israel wants to defend its share of the disputed energy reserves in the Mediterranean. «[…] For a long time, the country relied mainly on gas supplies from Egypt. “The discovery of its own reserves about a decade ago transformed Israel from an importer to an exporter, and made its maritime infrastructure the target of attacks.”
In this context, Welt also refers to the EastMed pipeline as the “most ambitious and controversial” energy project, which will allow the transfer of natural gas from Israel to Europe, via Cyprus and Greece. The future of the gas pipeline, however, is uncertain as “on the one hand, the cost-benefit ratio is questioned, while on the other hand, the dispute over energy reserves in the eastern Mediterranean is intensifying.”
However, as Seth Franzmann, director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis, points out, Turkey does not even need the Mediterranean reserves because it can exploit the resources of the Black Sea. “What is at stake in this dispute is not gas, but sovereignty in the Mediterranean. The military expert observes a significant increase in the naval armament of the countries of the region after the geopolitical withdrawal of the United States that already began under Obama, and to a similar extent to the period before the First World War. According to the expert, the United States has left a gap in the Middle East that Russia and Turkey are trying to fill. Greece is defending itself against the neo-Ottoman political power of Erdogan. And Israel is drawn into the Greek-Turkish conflict. […] But the Israeli navy is not well equipped. The delivery of the corvette is therefore of fundamental importance ”.
Source: DW – Costas Symeonidis
