Whats This? Palestinians Turn To Russia To Counter US/Israel Peace Process Moves Share this article The Chairman for the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, launched a diplomatic offensive on January 23, aimed squarely at John Kerry’s US-led Middle East peace initiative. His meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev leave little question as to his new direction, or what he hopes to accomplish. The move seems to have come as a surprise to, and caught both Secretary of State John Kerry and Prime Minister Binyamin unprepared. This, by itself would be bad enough, but also, the move seems to have caught the intelligence agencies of both nations by surprise. The two leaders (Putin and Abbas) almost certainly planned in advance to drop their bombshell on the day both Kerry and Netanyahu were otherwise engaged at two international events in Switzerland, Geneva 2 on Syria and the World Economic Forum. The first hint that there was a change on the wind came from an ITAR-TASS agency report Thursday, stating that Medvedev and Abbas were due to sign an intergovernmental agreement for a $1 billion natural gas project in the Gaza section of the Mediterranean Sea. Gazprom, the Russian energy behemoth, hoped to produce 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas at the site. The report added that a Russian engineering firm, Technopromexport, was also considering a small oil development project near the West Bank city of Ramallah, which serves as the hub of the Palestinian Authority government headed (conveniently) by Abbas. The Palestinian leader opened talks with Putin by calling Russia a great power that deserved to play a more prominent role in the volatile Middle East region. Clearly taken by surprise by the development, and dismayed by the news coming in fast from Moscow, Israeli sources said Thursday night they could not understand how the Russians and Palestinians came to an agreement on Mediterranean waters off the shores of Gaza, when the rights were already owned by British Gas. The British Gas claim may or may not hold, as the deal with Russia was designed to be an extension of the Russian-Syrian oil exploration contract signed on Dec. 27 in Moscow. Even if it does not hold, it sends a clear signal and puts economic control of the region in doubt. This move is troubling to Israel for two primary reasons: • Russian interests could potentially encircle Israel’s offshore Mediterranean gas and oil sites and Russian pipelines may block Israel’s export facilities. • Under international law, the Palestinian Authority is not recognized as an independent state and is therefore not empowered to establish Special Economic Zones in the Mediterranean as closed areas for prospecting for oil or gas. This was one of the topics placed on the agenda of the peace talks led by John Kerry. However, Moscow has circumvented this obstruction by taking charge of the offshore exploration opposite Gaza, thereby proffering its Palestinian partner to the deal, and of course implicit in the deal is Russian recognition of Palestine’s status as an independent national entity authorized to sign international contracts. This could be the precedent for a process of creeping Palestinian statehood without engaging Israel in negotiation. For the Russian leader, it was a chance to show yet another example of Russian leadership in the region. Clearly, Mr. Putin was several steps ahead of the game here, as he has been on at least two other hot button Middle East issues of late (Iran’s nuclear program and the conflict in Syria). Moscow has already showed that it can get away with ignoring international sanctions when it concluded a one and a half billion contract with Tehran for the purchase of half a million barrels of Iranian oil a day, and when it did so, it didn’t incur a single word of complaint from Washington. Nabil Shaath, a Palestinian Fatah summarized the situation thusly: “It is time to end the American monopoly on peacemaking, after Washington had proved incapable of imposing agreements on Israel. Russian tactics for Syria and Iran had proved effective, he said, and there was no reason why Moscow could not perform the same function on the Israeli-Palestinian track. The Palestinians have clearly opted to follow the examples of other Middle East leaders in making tracks, overtly or covertly, to Moscow. (H/T: Debka)
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 19:58:20 +0000
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