--- title: "The Region and Its Wealth at the Mercy of Israeli Ambitions | Ghazi Mahmoud" url: https://ghazimahmoud.com/en/articles/2025-01-03-b91894/ lang: en description: "Oil and gas discoveries in the eastern Mediterranean basin have thrust the region into the spotlight and attracted international attention to its hidden wealth since the beginning of the third millennium." --- [All articles](https://ghazimahmoud.com/en/articles/) # The Region and Its Wealth at the Mercy of Israeli Ambitions [Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Dr. Ghazi Mahmoud](https://ghazimahmoud.com/en/about/) 3 Jan 2025 · 6 min read [Energy, oil and gas](https://ghazimahmoud.com/en/articles/energy/)[Politics and security](https://ghazimahmoud.com/en/articles/geo/) Oil and gas discoveries in the eastern Mediterranean basin have thrust the region into the spotlight and attracted international attention to its hidden wealth since the beginning of the third millennium. These discoveries were accompanied by the US Geological Survey's announcement in 2010 of the presence of promising quantities of oil and gas reserves in this basin. In 2021, the agency raised its estimates of natural gas reserves in the eastern basin to nearly 494 trillion cubic feet, while lowering its estimates for oil to the equivalent of 3.7 billion barrels. These discoveries added a new crisis to the region's crises, namely the competition for, and control over, the oil and gas wealth in which the eastern Mediterranean basin abounds, and brought back to the fore the disputes among the states bordering it. The Arab-Israeli conflict formed the first of these geopolitical disputes that hindered moving forward with oil and gas exploration along this coast, particularly the Lebanese and Palestinian coasts. Israeli ambitions regarding Lebanese land and waters predate the oil and gas discoveries in the eastern Mediterranean basin; indeed, they date back to the establishment of the entity on the usurped land of Palestine. Israeli ambitions for Lebanon's oil and gas wealth prevented the completion of exploration operations in Block 4, where drilling was halted before reaching the depth stipulated in the exploration and production agreement, with the aim of pressuring Lebanon into agreeing to demarcate the borders of the economic zone with the Israeli entity. During the Gaza support war, the enemy's energy minister was not content with the injustice done to Lebanon's rights by the agreement demarcating the borders of the economic zone, going on to demand the annulment and amendment of the agreement in order to seize additional areas of the Lebanese exclusive economic zone, which was supposed to be bounded by Line 29 rather than Line 23. That agreement caused Lebanon to lose an area of 1,430 square kilometers in Israel's favor, bearing in mind that failure to adopt the line extending from the land border caused the loss of an additional 3,800 square kilometers, along with whatever oil and gas resources those areas may hold. On the other hand, Israel did not wait for Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, which was launched on October 7, 2023, to block the development of the "Gaza Marine" field, despite more than two decades having passed since its discovery. As a condition for allowing the development of this field, it had stipulated that its supplies reach Ashkelon first to meet its own gas needs, and at prices below global rates. Halting the development of the "Gaza Marine" field thus constituted the first direct dispute over gas reserves across the eastern Mediterranean, and not between Israel and the Palestinians alone. The situation is no better between Turkey and Greek Cyprus, already locked in dispute over the division of Cyprus, a dispute renewed with the discovery of oil and gas resources off the Cypriot coast to encompass the demarcation of the borders of each side's exclusive economic zone, with Turkey claiming that the Cypriot exclusive economic zone belongs to it. In an unprecedented step, Turkey also announced the demarcation of new maritime borders between itself and Libya, a move denounced by both Egypt and Greece, alongside whose waters the demarcation runs near the island of Crete. As for exploiting the discoveries, Israel was at the forefront of the eastern Mediterranean basin states that used their gas discoveries to meet domestic needs, particularly power generation plants, before turning toward exports. While the Israelis were betting on exporting to Europe, the high costs of both developing the Tamar and Leviathan fields and building a pipeline to Europe prevented that from being realized. Consequently, Israel directed its natural gas exports to neighboring Arab states bound to it by peace treaties, most notably Jordan and Egypt. The bet was that the discovery of natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean would help integrate Israel with neighboring states and serve as an effective tool for entrenching the normalization process with its neighbors. Yet the gas agreements concluded by Israel with both Egypt and Jordan did not bring warmth to the peace accords between them, leaving it a cold peace. Meanwhile, the border demarcation agreement between Israel and Lebanon did not prevent the outbreak of the support war, nor did it give any real sign of overcoming decades of hostility between the two parties. The situation is similar elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean basin, where energy discoveries have exacerbated tensions rather than eased them. Gas discoveries off the Cypriot coast have not brought Greek Cyprus and Turkey closer together. On the contrary, these discoveries have led to further friction on the divided Cypriot island. Nor have they helped diversify energy supply sources to Europe, particularly after its relations with Russia became strained to the breaking point because of the war in Ukraine. As for the developments witnessed in the region since the announcement of the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon on November 27, 2024, culminating in the fall of the Assad family regime in Syria this past December 8 and the Turkish role in its downfall, they herald a new reality that may revive interest in the wealth of the eastern Mediterranean basin and pave the way for its exploitation. Indeed, it was no mere detail in Israel's war on Gaza and Lebanon that the gas fields off the Israeli coast were spared from the resistance's missiles. Could Syria, by virtue of its location and the Arab Gas Pipeline that reaches its northern borders, become a hub for gas transit pipelines between the eastern Mediterranean and Europe, especially as expectations rest on the emergence of a new regime more open to regional cooperation? And is there a consolation prize for Turkey for its role in toppling the Assad family regime, by way of constructing an oil pipeline from Syria to Turkey and linking it to the pipeline running between Iraq and Turkey, cooperating in the oil and natural gas sectors in the future, in addition to the possibility of supplying Syria and Lebanon with electricity? As for Lebanon, a question arises over whether the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel could open the door for Lebanon to reactivate gas exploration operations and ultimately exploit its available resources, following the setbacks faced by previous attempts, especially since the American mediator who was the godfather of the maritime border demarcation agreement is the very same architect of the ceasefire. Yet the persistence of Israeli aggression in Lebanon, as in Syria, raises fears of a collapse of the ceasefire and portends dire consequences, not only in terms of giving Lebanon the opportunity to exploit its oil and gas resources, but extending beyond that to the future of the region, not Lebanon's future alone. Translated from Arabic with AI. [Read it in Arabic](https://ghazimahmoud.com/articles/2025-01-03-b91894/) ## Published in - [Channel 23](https://ch23.com/Article/231505/المنطقة-وثرواتها-في-مهب-الاطماع-الإسرائيلية) - [MTV Lebanon](https://www.mtv.com.lb/news/1535835) - [Radar News](https://www.radar-news.net/المنطقة-وثرواتها-في-مهب-الاطماع-الإسر/) - [Anbaa Online](https://anbaaonline.com/news/270962) - [OZ Arab Media](https://ozarab.media/المنطقة-وثرواتها-في-مهب-الاطماع-الإسر/) - [Lebanon Files](https://www.lebanonfiles.com/2025/articles/باقلامهم/المنطقة-وثرواتها-في-مهبّ-الأطماع-الإس/) ## More on energy, oil and gas [All articles on this subject](https://ghazimahmoud.com/en/articles/energy/) [18 Dec 2024 · The Global Economy Reels Between Yellow and Black Gold · Channel 23, MTV Lebanon ](https://ghazimahmoud.com/en/articles/2024-12-18-5bb67b/) [9 Dec 2024 · The Limits of Oil and Gas Wars in the Middle East · Lebanon Files ](https://ghazimahmoud.com/en/articles/2024-12-09-85e728/) [4 Dec 2024 · The Region's Wars and Their Economic Limits · Channel 23, OZ Arab Media ](https://ghazimahmoud.com/en/articles/2024-12-04-77eabe/)