Energy ties fuel Netanyahu's first Cyprus visit

NICOSIA: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will make a landmark visit to Cyprus on Thursday aimed at highlighting an unprecedented warming of ties between the two nations which have struck rich with natural gas finds.

The blossoming of relations is prompted by a mutual interest in gas and oil exploration, and comes as their respective ties with Turkey deteriorate.

During Netanyahu's one day trip -- the first by an Israeli prime minister to the east Mediterranean island -- he is due to discuss energy cooperation and regional security, but without putting specific proposals on the table.

"We want to emphasise that we want further cooperation, it's a symbolic visit which gives a good boost to existing interests," Israeli Ambassador Michael Harari told the Cyprus Weekly newspaper.

Energy cooperation with Cyprus "made a lot of sense," but it still needs to be defined, he said.

An Israeli official speaking to AFP in Jerusalem described the visit as "historic."

"This is the first ever visit of an Israeli premier, and as such historic. It demonstrates the dramatic improvement in the bilateral relationship between the countries," the official said.

"On the agenda of the visit is the issue of energy: the gas finds in Israel and similar occurrences on the Cypriot side have opened the door to cooperate in a mutually beneficial way in the development of our gas fields and eventual production of gas."

Both countries have discovered huge offshore natural gas deposits beneath the Mediterranean Sea separating them and have tentatively discussed cooperation on delivering the gas to European and Asian markets.

Israeli firm Delek and its Texan partner Noble have discovered 16 trillion

cubic feet (450 billion cubic metres) of natural gas in the Leviathan gas field close to Cyprus's own zone.

It also has a stakehold in what Noble Energy finds off the island's shores.

Late last year, Noble said it had discovered gas reserves of up to 8 trillion cubic feet (225 billion cubic metres) beneath the sea bed just south of Cyprus.

The financial potential of such huge finds has ushered in a new dawn in relations between Israel and Cyprus.

The newfound closeness comes as ties between Israel and Ankara hit a historic low following a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla of aid ships in May 2010, which left nine Turkish nationals dead.

Cyprus is also locked in a row with Turkey over maritime gas exploration rights, in which it is firmly backed by Israel which sees the island as a gateway to Europe.

The warming of ties was cemented in December 2010 when the two countries signed a deal delimiting an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) which defines their maritime borders and allows them to move ahead in the search for energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean.

Netanyahu's visit comes a month after Cypriot Defence Minister Demetris Eliades made a landmark trip to Tel Aviv to sign a deal on intelligence sharing, during which he said the gas discoveries "opened new chapters of cooperation."

Shortly afterwards, Commerce Minister Praxoulla Antoniadou led a trade delegation to Israel.

The Israeli official, who declined to be named, said Thursday's talks would also focus on "threats to regional security" and touch on the Iranian nuclear drive.

"We will be raising issues of Iran and the peace process, as we would with any other member of European Union," he said.

Asked about reports that Israel could ask Cyprus to station planes on the island, he said he was "not aware that it is a real issue."

Netanyahu's visit also comes two months after Israeli President Shimon Peres visited Cyprus on the first such presidential visit in 13 years.

For decades, Cyprus was viewed as one of Israel's sternest critics on the Palestinian issue and only sent an ambassador to the Jewish state in 1994.

Relations hit a nadir in 1998 when two alleged Mossad agents were caught

allegedly spying at a military facility, only days after a visit by then president Ezer Weizman.

The two were charged with trespassing but freed after serving several months of a three-year sentence.

Since then, there has been a sea-change in attitudes which have been re-shaped by the shifting political and economic landscape.

Three years ago, Cyprus also made a U-turn in policy by banning any activist ships from leaving its ports en route to Gaza in a bid to protest against Israel's maritime blockade on the Palestinian territory.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2012