The Arish-Ashkelon Gas Pipeline and The Uprising in Syria

Thanks to Gooch for alerting me to this ... have known of the gas reserves in sea-bed off shores of Gaza for a few years now, but wasn't aware of Egypt's pumping gas to Israel, at all... so, most illuminating.

I amended the title soon after posting, since when I started to collect background links to flesh this post out, I realised this has implications all over the wider topic - not least Egypt's Islamic Brotherhood and political Islam, and the unfolding situation in Syria, with western military intervention there all but certain very soon. And what about major players in the energy business, such as Russia's Gazprom? Various links in replies. Readers are encouraged to click through for a better overview.
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The Arish–Ashkelon pipeline is a 100 kilometres (62 mi) submarine gas pipeline connecting the Arab Gas Pipeline with Israel. Although it is not officially a part of the Arab Gas Pipeline project, it branches off from the same pipeline in Egypt. The pipeline is built and operated by the East Mediterranean Gas Company (EMG), a joint company of Mediterranean Gas Pipeline Ltd (28%), the Israeli company Merhav (25%), PTT (25%), EMI-EGI LP (12%), and Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (10%).[10] The pipeline became operational in February 2008, at a cost of $180 million – $550 million (the exact figure is disputed).[11] Initially Egypt and Israel had agreed to supply through this pipeline 1.7 billion cubic metres (60 billion cubic feet) of natural gas per year for use by the Israel Electric Corporation.[12] This has since been raised to 2.1 billion cubic metres (74 billion cubic feet) per year to be delivered through the year 2028. In addition, by late 2009, EMG had signed contracts to supply through the pipeline additional 2 billion cubic metres (71 billion cubic feet) per year to private electricity generators and various industrial concerns in Israel and negotiations with other potential buyers were ongoing. In 2010, the pipeline is supplying approximately half of the natural gas consumed in Israel, with the other half being supplied from domestic resources. The total physical capacity of the pipeline is 9 billion cubic metres (320 billion cubic feet) per year and agreements between the two nations provide a framework for the purchase of up to 7.5 billion cubic metres (260 billion cubic feet) per year of Egyptian gas by Israeli entities, making Israel one of Egypt's most important natural gas export markets. In 2010 some Egyptian activists appealed for a legal provision against governmental authorities to stop gas flow to Israel according to the obscure contract and very low price compared to the global rates, however the provision was denied by Mubarak regime for unknown reasons. In 2011, after the 25 January Revolution against Mubarak regime, many Egyptians called for stopping the gas project with Israel due to low prices.[citation needed] After a fifth bombing of the pipeline, flow had to be stopped for repair.[13][14]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Gas_Pipeline#Arish.E2.80.93Ashkelon_pipeline


(note: according to this image, Tripoli is in Lebanon? I'm assuming that's just a city with the same name as the Libyan one...)

Egypt eases travel restrictions for Gaza travellers

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/world/Egypt+eases+travel+restrictions+Gaza+travellers/4856786/story.html


RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Egypt eased travel restrictions for residents of Gaza on Saturday, eroding a blockade of the Palestinian territory imposed by Israel to isolate its Islamist Hamas rulers.

Egypt, which made peace with Israel in 1979 but whose interim military rulers want to improve relations with Palestinians, allowed nearly 300 Gazans to enter its territory at the Rafah crossing in the first hour after it opened.

Under new regulations Egypt announced on Wednesday, the Rafah crossing, Hamas-controlled Gaza's only window to the outside world, will operate six days a week instead of five and working hours will be extended by two hours a day.

"I believe this a unique move and positive development," said Ghazi Hamad, Islamist Hamas's deputy foreign minister.

Israel maintains a tight blockade of the Gaza Strip because Hamas refuses to recognize the Jewish state and calls for its destruction. Israeli officials have declined to comment on the opening of Gaza's only free exit point to the world.

Israel allows some goods to be imported into the Gaza Strip through land border crossings and lets out a small number Gazans, mainly for medical treatment.

Under Egypt's new travel guidelines, women, minors and men over 40 no longer require a visa to enter the country, meaning hundreds more passengers will be able to cross every day.

Previously, the terminal could cope with no more than 300 outgoing passengers per day and Hamad said that with streamlined co-ordination he expected the daily numbers to triple.

"We will co-operate with Egyptian brothers to make sure the new arrangements get implemented smoothly and accutately . . . We even hope that 1,000 people will be able to cross every day," Hamaad, who oversees work at the crossing, told Reuters.

Palestinians have hailed the Egyptian move as a manifestation of a new era in relations after the February removal in a pro-democracy uprising of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, who helped preserve the blockade and sided with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas's rival.

The blockade has compounded severe poverty in Gaza, a tiny densely populated coastal territory of 1.5 million people.

Israel has said it hopes Cairo will not heed Hamas demands to allow commercial goods through the crossing, saying it fears arms will then be smuggled into the territory and strengthen militants who have used underground tunnels to import weapons.

The Rafah crossing had operated sporadically since 2007 after Egypt closed it following Hamas's takeover of Gaza when it ousted forces loyal Abbas's Fatah faction. Hamas had won parliamentary elections in 2006 and seized Gaza a year later.

Last year, Mubarak's Egypt opened the crossing on a regular basis five days a week and allowed mainly students, those needing medical treatment, holders of visas to a third country and dual nationals out of Gaza.

With files from Ahmed El-Shemi in Rafah, Egypt
© Copyright (c) Royal City Record

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/world/Egypt+eases+travel+restrictions+Gaza+travellers/4856786/story.html#ixzz1Ne9sDvzv

BBC News - Egypt: Army crackdown in Cairo's Tahrir Square

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13023948
Egypt's army has cracked down on protests in Cairo's symbolic Tahrir Square, leaving at least one person dead and dozens injured.

The violence occurred overnight as the army tried to clear protesters calling for ex-President Hosni Mubarak and his family to be tried for corruption.

The injured suffered gunshot wounds but the army denies using live rounds.

Tahrir Square became the symbolic centre of protests that led to Mr Mubarak stepping down this year.

Egypt's health ministry has so far confirmed that one person died overnight and says 71 people were hurt.

Medical sources told news agencies that at least two people had died.

Protesters have now returned to the square following the army withdrawal and are continuing demonstrations.

In an apparent concession to the protesters the ruling military council announced on Saturday that it would replace a number of provincial governors appointed by Mr Mubarak - another demand of the demonstrators.

However, the army also said it was "ready" to use force to clear the square and allow normal life to resume.

"Tahrir Square will be emptied of protesters with firmness and force to ensure life goes back to normal," Major General Adel Emarah, of the military council, told a news conference.
'Tantawi is Mubarak'

The army had maintained a generally neutral role in the earlier mass demonstrations.

But about 300 troops moved into the square at about 0300 local time (0100 GMT) on Saturday to break up a camp in the centre.

Protesters say they were beaten with clubs and shots were fired.

An army spokesman told Reuters news agency that only blanks were used.

VISIT LINK FOR MORE

18 days of protest culminate in Mubarak's ouster - CNN.com

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/11/egypt.protests/index.html?hpt=T1
hasta la vista baby.

Egypt President says he will NOT step down...

So Mubarak has stated in a press conference that he will neither step down nor leave the country as the people want.   He has simply transferred his power to the vice-president...read the story here...

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110210/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt

Egypt vs Algeria - A Matter of Life and Death

A Matter of Life and Death? (Egypt vs Algeria is more important than that)

The most violent rivals in football will meet tomorrow in a game with the highest of stakes: a trip to next year's World Cup finals.

By Daniel Howden

Wednesday, 18 November 2009

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/a-matter-of-life-and-death-egypt-vs-algeria-is-more-important-than-that-1822424.html

Had Bill Shankly hailed from Cairo rather than a Scottish mining village, he might have said: "Football's not a matter of life and death – but it can cost you your eyesight." Ask the Egyptian team doctor who lost an eye after being attacked with a broken bottle by an Algerian footballer when the two countries last met for a place in the World Cup finals two decades ago.

Tonight the two sides meet again for the same prize after a sequence of results that would make an atheist question the notion of free will. At stake is a place in next year's World Cup, no small amount of pride and the terms of a million arguments that will rage in North Africa long after the final whistle is blown.

The footballing giants of the Maghreb both have points to prove. Algeria have not taken part in the finals since 1986 and Egypt, for all their dominance of Africa's club competitions, haven't been there since 1990. There is a mutual antipathy – stoked, some believe, by a perceived failure on the part of Egypt to assist Algeria's efforts to throw off French colonial rule.

But the beautiful game has been cultivated in both countries, where the authoritarian regimes haven't been slow to notice that football can let off popular steam that might otherwise blow in their direction. "The elite [in Egypt] never lost faith in football's ability to soothe the masses," David Goldblatt wrote in his world football bible The Ball is Round.

With so much pumped-up pride and frustration placed on the outcome of a kick-around, matches may stop revolutions but they also start riots.

After a disappointing qualification campaign from group favourites Egypt, relative outsiders Algeria found themselves within touching distance of a place in South Africa. All they needed to do was avoid losing by two goals in Cairo last Saturday. A draw would have seen Algeria go through. A defeat by a single goal likewise. A win by three goals would have elevated Egypt above Algeria in their qualifying group and sent the "Pharaohs" south. In fact, the only score that could have persuaded anyone to stage a play-off between two of football's most antagonistic rivals was 2-0 to Egypt.

Thanks to a goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time from Egypt's Emad Moteab, that's exactly what happened. That left the two rivals level on points and goal difference in Group C. And so tonight, in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman, they face each other again in a match that almost nobody wanted, fighting for the final African place in the 2010 championships.

Football's world governing body Fifa is hoping the Sudanese authorities can do a better policing job than Egypt managed at the weekend.

Despite weeks of warnings, an online war of words among supporters and public appeals for calm from cabinet ministers and the insistence of the Egyptian foreign ministry that all sides "had a desire for calm ahead of the crucial match", the Algerian players had barely made it out of the airport before they were attacked.

A stone-throwing mob surrounded the team bus and the latest gory chapter was opened. "We were bombarded with stones," Michel Gaillaud, the Desert Foxes' French doctor, recalled. The first rock was thrown hard enough to go in one side of the bus and out the other, he added. "People were screaming. We were lying on the floor. Someone started shouting, 'There's blood! There's blood!'"

It's a shout that's usually heard at some point in encounters between the two countries. Anyone listening to the pre-match comments from Egypt's captain Ahmed Hassan would have known what to expect: "Algeria once said their trip to Egypt will be joyful and full of entertainment, but I assure them it won't."

Sympathy for the stoned was in short supply in Cairo where commentators queued up to dispute the Algerians' claimed injuries, saying the attack had been faked in an effort to get the game cancelled.

While almost anywhere else in the world the game would have been called off, here Fifa looked the other way and it went ahead with two of Algeria's team playing with head bandages – a situation the coach wasted little time in blaming for the 2-0 defeat.

The backlash in Algiers was swift. Thousands of Algeria fans burned down Egyptian telecom giant Orascom's compound and stole or destroyed equipment worth $5m. EgyptAir's country headquarters were ransacked twice and looters chanted slogans at the firemen who turned up to put out the blaze. Algeria's ambassador was later summoned to the foreign ministry in Cairo for stern words. If this response seems overblown, anyone present at the 1989 match could have told authorities what to expect. Then, as now, the two teams had to play two matches to decide who would go to Italia '90. The first ended goalless, moving to a decider in Cairo where Egypt needed to win. This they did thanks to a first-half header from Hossam Hassan but the football wasn't really the point.

Ayman Younis, an Egyptian midfielder who would have played that day but for injury and is now a television commentator, remembers: "It was an incredible atmosphere. The stadium was full five hours before the game. The Algeria team was full of stars and, on the pitch, it was very crazy; 11 fights between every player. Everybody forgot what the coaches had to say and just fought instead. It was a battle, not a football match. It was like our war against Israel in 1973."

Then the fighting got worse. Brawling in the tunnel was followed by a pitched battle at the press conference that had to be broken up by heavy police intervention. By the time the two sides were parted, the Egyptian team doctor had lost an eye.

One of Africa's most admired players, Algeria's Lakhdar Belloumi – who scored the winning goal against West Germany at the 1982 World Cup – was blamed. He was convicted in absentia by an Egyptian court and a warrant issued for his arrest by Interpol. He has remained a virtual prisoner at his home until a personal appeal by Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika saw the warrant lifted this year.

The leading characters from that fateful match are once again to the fore. Many of the players are now coaching or commentating on tonight's game. Algeria are managed by Rabah Saadane, who led them in the 1989 decider. When asked about the pressure at a press conference in June he broke down in tears.

As for the peacemakers in Khartoum, hopes of a neutral venue have vanished in the last 48 hours. Egypt is perceived as the neighbourhood's sporting bully and around 15,000 riot police have been deployed. Last night, Algerian defender Madjid Bougherra summed up the mood, saying they were "ready for war".

Scotland seems to be everyone's first port of call when it comes to underlining the importance of a match and while Algeria's supporters didn't quote Bill Shankly they took inspiration from the movie Braveheart in a popular YouTube clip, getting William Wallace to call on all Algerians to turn out for the Sudan decider.

Thousands of fans like Adel, decked out in pointed hat, shirt and trousers in Algeria's colours, answered the call: "I am married with two children," he told the AFP in Khartoum. "I left my children, my wife, my home. I left everything and I came here."

Live coverage of the match starts at 17:15 on British Eurosport.

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Great sporting rivalries




*India v Pakistan

With TV audiences often approaching one billion, the clashes between these two great cricketing nations can take on an epic quality. The stakes are only heightened when the two countries' relationship is soured by politics. Effigies of hated players have been burned in the streets; on some occasions, Test matches have even been played in neutral countries to dampen hostilities. Pakistan boast the better head-to-head record in tests, with 12 wins to India's nine.

*El Salvador v Honduras

In 1969 these Central American nations faced off against each other for a place at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. Honduras won the first game 1-0, while El Salvador triumphed in the second game 3-0. A month later, on 14 July, the two countries commenced a four-day war that resulted in around 2000 deaths. Of course the causes lay in deep socio-economic tensions. But tensions were stoked up so much by the needle fixtures that the conflict became known as the "The Football War".

*USA v USSR

Another rivalry with its roots in politics, this titanic battle took a further twist during the 1972 Munich Olympics when chaos reigned in the basketball final. Timing errors led to premature celebrations from the Americans before late scores swung the match in favour of the Soviets who ultimately prevailed. Despite vehement protests and official tribunals, the result stood, while the silver medals went unclaimed by the USA. Americans may prefer to look back on their amateur ice hockey team's astonishing success in the 1980 Winter Olympics, when en route to a gold medal they took on the feted Soviet side as heavy underdogs and won, in a stunning game that came to be known as the "Miracle on Ice".

*Japan v South Korea

They may have joined forces to host the World Cup in 2002, but relations between these two were a lot more tense following the Second World War. When they were drawn against each other for a set of World Cup qualifiers in 1954, South Korean president Syngman Rhee refused to allow the Japanese to set foot in his country. Both games were therefore played in Tokyo, and Rhee warned his countrymen: "Be prepared to throw yourselves into the ocean if you lose."

*Russia v Georgia

When the two countries' athletes flew to Beijing for the 2008 Olympic Games, they may not have anticipated any unusual rivalry. Then Georgia launched an assault on South Ossetia, and a brutal war began. In China, the stakes were rather lower – but some competitors couldn't forget the war at home. In the women's beach volleyball, the Georgian underdogs triumphed. Cristine Santanna – originally Brazilian – declared: "I was inspired by what is going on back in Georgia and it made me more determined to win." Her Russian opponents saw things differently. "Georgia were stupid to start a war with Russia," snapped a furious Alexandra Shiryaeva. "We are big and they are small."

Matt Fortune and Rahul Odedra