Egypt ends Israel gas deal because of economic crisis, not Islamists, young Copt says
Cairo (AsiaNews) - "The Egyptian population is going through a serious economic crisis. Many people have to line up to buy a gas canister. For this reason, most of them are against Israel, which is buying our gas at below market values," said Nagui Damian, a young Copt and leader in last year's Jasmine Revolution as he spoke about the decision by the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) to stop selling natural gas to Israel.
The decision came after months of anti-Israeli protests by Islamist parliamentarians and 14 attacks against the gas pipeline in the Sinai desert, which has stopped the flow of gas for almost a year.
EGAS has accused Israel's East Mediterranean Gas Company (EMG) of breaking the contract and wants it renegotiated.
"Many Western newspapers claim that EGAS' action is related to the growth of Islamism in Egypt," Nagui Damian, said. "The reality is that people are increasingly opposed to deals that are favourable to Israel reached during the Mubarak regime. The Muslim brotherhood is riding the wave of discontent to gain votes."
For him, Egyptians are victims of their leaders' schizophrenia and the ongoing economic crisis. "People cannot get to the end of the month and attack political leaders, especially the Brotherhood, whose leaders are more concerned about dividing up the spoils of power," Damian explained. "So far, parliament has not yet adopted any proposal to improve the country's situation, especially its economy."
Signed in 2005, the gas deal was made possible by the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. Under its terms, Egypt has to sell for 20 years about 1.7 billion cubic metres of natural gas a year to Israel at a price of .50 per million British thermal units, which is 40 per cent of market value.
Amos Gilad, director of Policy and Political-Military Affairs at the Defence, yesterday tried to minimise the problem by saying that EGAS only wants to renegotiate the contract, and that its decision does not affect the Israel-Egypt peace treaty.
For Israel's government, the decision is an attempt to break relations between the two countries.
On Sunday, Israeli daily Haaretz quoted sources close to EMG as saying "Egypt does not understand what it is doing. This move will bring back the country-politically and economically-by 30 years."
For some rightwing Israeli politicians, Islamists' victory in Egypt makes that country even more dangerous than Iran.
However, for Haitham Abu Khalil, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood youth wing, the movement is losing ground. They are throwing away the gains of the Jasmine Revolution.
The Brotherhood is reckless and in a state of confusion. With their actions, they are losing the support they won in the parliamentary elections.
In the end, they will try to shunt responsibility for the loss of the revolution and persuade people that its failure was the result of "some Zionist-American scheme," he said. (S.C.)
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