Mohamed Shoeb, who heads Egypt’s Natural Gas Holding Company (NGHC) told al-Hayat that the decision to halt the sale of natural gas to Israel despite the multi-year agreement is due to Israel’s repeated “breaching of the agreement”.

Experts in Israel seem to feel that the move will not have a profound negative impact on the nation’s energy availability, especially in light of recent attacks against the pipeline that resulted in long interruptions in the flow of gas. This is the opinion of senior Israel Electric Company officials in their statements to the media.

In the political arena however, the response is somewhat different, accusing Cairo of violating the peace agreements with Israel since the gas agreement is part of these agreements.

Leading Egyptian presidential candidate Abd el-Munam Abu al-Fatuah released a statement that “The Egyptian people, who managed to withstand Israel and refused normalization despite the peace treaty, is definitely not interested in the gas export agreement with Israel.” He made no effort to hide his disdain for Israel, which is synonymous with policies in Cairo since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak. Senior cabinet ministers in Israel continue to warn the radicalization in Egypt is a most worrisome and unwanted regional reality and that Israel must prepare for the eventuality that the peace agreement signed with Anwar Sadat may no longer be honored.

The consensus in Jerusalem appears to be that the decision was made to satisfy the growing anti-Israel sentiment in Egypt since Mubarak was ousted, in line with other changes that signal a more hostile Egyptian government than seen during recent years.

Shortly following the fall of Mubarak, MK Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who is credited with being a close confidant of the deposed Egyptian leader warned that a conflict with Egypt is a definite possibility as was reported by YWN-ISRAEL last year.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is concerned. Lieberman added he hopes the decision is nothing more than a business dispute and not a change in diplomatic realities with Egypt. He has already warned that the changing political tide in Egypt I cause for concern and this may compel Israel to once again station troops in Sinai to prevent that border area from becoming another Iran-aligned terror base as is the case in Gaza and southern Lebanon. While Lieberman hopes the dispute will remain a business issue to be ironed out on that level, he feels it is yet another message confirming fears of the changing political climate in that country as the Islamic Brotherhood begins exerting its growing influence.

The foreign minister told Israel Radio that we must continue carefully monitoring events in that country while realizing Israel will have to accept the outcome of elections and the changes that may result.

Israel Radio adds that a “senior Egyptian military official” states the deal has not been canceled, but a few points modified. The “senior official” quoted anonymously on Monday morning, 1 Iyar 5772 speaking to al-Hayat stated that his country remains committed to all agreements signed with Israel.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)