Posted on 04/09/2006 10:43:05 AM PDT by Lessismore
ANKARA: Turkey and Israel have scrapped a long-standing project to ship water from Turkey's southern coast to the Jewish state on the grounds that the deal is no longer feasible, the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced Friday.
"The two sides have reached an agreement to cancel the deal because rising oil prices have increased the cost of transporting water in specially built tankers," a ministry statement said.
Another reason, it said, was the Turkish government's decision to privatize the water-treatment facilities on the Manavgat River, from where the water was to be shipped to Israel.
The project, negotiations on which have been going on for years, had been meant to relieve Israel's chronic water shortage and give a fresh boost to its relations with Turkey.
In 2004, Israel had agreed to buy 50 million cubic meters of water a year from Turkey over 20 years. Turkey has built facilities capable of exporting 180 million cubic meters of water annually on the Manavgat, which flows into the Mediterranean near the southern port of Antalya.
"We have agreed to keep alternative projects on the agenda that will allow the sale of water in the future not only to Israel but also to Palestine and Jordan," the ministry said. "The sale of water from Manavgat to any interested countries in the Mediterranean or the Middle East will become possible after the privatization of the facility."
Turkey has been Israel's main regional ally since 1996, when the two countries hammered out a military cooperation deal, much to the anger of Arab nations and Iran.
Relations have gone through cooler periods, however, since the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party came to power in Ankara in 2002.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of "state terror' in 2004 following a deadly Israeli raid on a Palestinian refugee camp and Ankara temporarily recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv.
In February, Ankara angered Israel when it hosted a Hamas delegation in what it said was a bid to convince the group to moderate its policies. - AFP
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.