ISTANBUL, Turkey, June 9 (UPI) -- Though both sides offered different reasons, Russian and Turkish leaders said a planned natural gas pipeline may no longer stretch to Israel.
Ankara and Moscow in March 2009 agreed to set up a working group to examine parts of the Blue Stream project, which would move Russian gas to the Middle East, including Turkey and Israel.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on the sidelines of a regional summit in Istanbul that there is no longer a demand from Israel for the pipeline, Turkish news agency Hurriyet reports.
"Israel, according to the data available, has found natural gas on its own continental shelf," the prime minister said.
A U.S.-Israeli team announced in February they discovered more than 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in deposits located about 55 miles off the coast of Haifa.
Ankara, for its part, said it would halt all energy projects planned with Israel because of the fallout from the May 31 raid by Israel of a Turkish-flagged vessel said to be delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Nine people were killed in the raid.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Blue Stream extension was no longer on the table.
