Netanyahu flies to Cyprus for trilateral gas pipeline summit

Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Cyprus’ capital Nicosia on Tuesday for a trilateral meeting on energy cooperation.

He said the top agenda of the meeting will be “advancing the feasibility of a regional gas pipeline from Israel to Cyprus, via Greece, to Europe”, Xinhua news agency reported.

This will be the fourth regional meeting between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Cypriot Prime Minister Nicos Anastasiades and Netanyahu over energy-related issues.

The pipeline will “be of great economic significance for the State of Israel”, Netanyahu said.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed in December, the three countries will build a gas pipeline from Israel to Cyprus and then to Greece and Italy.

Netanyahu’s office said he will return to Israel ahead of US President Donald Trump’s scheduled announcement on the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement.

—IANS