Talks sought on Palestinian gas field

JERUSALEM, March 10 (UPI) -- A natural gas field discovered in the eastern Mediterranean off the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip a decade ago has become entangled in the tortuous Middle East peace process and may help it along.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is reported to have approached Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to reopen negotiations for Israel to buy natural gas from a field found off Gaza in 2000.

That's a major shift by the Israelis and probably reflects their energy concerns amid the turmoil sweeping the Arab world and the downfall of Egyptian peace partner Hosni Mubarak in particular.

The bombing of a gas terminal in Egypt's Sinai Desert Feb. 5 during an anti-Mubarak uprising cut off the flow of Egyptian gas to Israel.

Many Israelis saw that as a signal that hard-line factions in Egypt could take power following Mubarak's Feb. 11 resignation and possibly demand the abrogation of the 32-year-old treaty between Egypt and Israel. That could involve cutting off gas supplies to Israel.

The Israeli business daily Globes reported that Netanyahu's government made the approach a few days after the attack on the Sinai terminal at the coastal town of El Arish west of Gaza.

Israel has found significant offshore gas fields of its own since 2008. These are estimated to contain 25 trillion cubic feet of gas, enough to meet Israeli requirement for decades.

Israel could get by without the Egyptian gas without too much trouble, although Egypt has proven reserves of 77 trillion cubic feet, three times the amount found off Israel's coast.

The Jewish state probably doesn't need the Palestinian gas either. But the nation's leaders fear that the political fallout from the unrest that has been sweeping the Arab world since Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali was driven from office Jan. 14 could cause problems with the Abbas' Palestinian Authority.

Abbas is considered a moderate prepared to negotiate a peace agreement with Israel rather than engage in hostilities. But he faces opposition from his own people and propping him up would benefit Netanyahu's coalition government and possibly counteract the loss of Mubarak, who supported the peace process.

Israel's renewed interest in promoting talks with Abbas following the recent upheaval in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world was underlined by Defense Minister Ehud Barak's disclosure that Netanyahu's government is prepared to offer the Palestinians a state within temporary borders.

Abbas has repeatedly rejected any semblance of a provisional Palestinian state but the Wall Street Journal Tuesday quoted Barak as saying in an interview that a full-fledged agreement on permanent statehood would follow.

By offering to buy gas from the Palestinians as a means to resume the foundering peace process, a move that U.S. President Barack Obama fervently seeks, Netanyahu apparently is seeking to gain favor in Washington.

The fall of Mubarak, and the possibility of the 1979 treaty between Cairo and the Israelis going down the tubes, has deeply alarmed Israelis who fear they will have to build up their military capabilities on the long-dormant southern front with Egypt.

Barak said that Israel might seek additional billions of dollars in U.S. military aid -- on top of the $3 billion a year it already gets -- so the Jewish state can become "a stabilizer in such a turbulent region."

Concessions to the Palestinians would help convinced the Obama administration to pay up.

Meantime, there is likely to be some tough bargaining ahead over the Gaza Marine field discovered by Britain's BG Group 22 miles offshore in 2000. It contains an estimated 1.5 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Rounds of talks in 2000 and 2006 collapsed. The first round folded because Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon insisted the Palestinian gas had to come ashore on Israeli territory; the second because of a dispute over prices.

Then in June 2007, the fundamentalist Hamas faction seized control of Gaza and booted out Abbas' PA, adding a major new wrinkle to the project.

Globes says Israel wants to develop the Gaza field in conjunction with the Noa gas field off southern Israel. Part of the field lies in Palestinian waters.

Netanyahu refuses to deal with Hamas and is blockading the Gaza Strip, while Hamas refuses to recognize Abbas' PA.

A Hamas-PA reconciliation would help solve the problem, although for now, that seems a remote prospect.