Electrical equipment of Israel-Jordan gas line torched
Jordanian citizens and politicians have expressed protest to the planned transfer of gas between the two nations.
By TZVI JOFFREAn aerial view shows the newly arrived foundation platform of Leviathan natural gas field, in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Haifa(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Two electrical transformers servicing a gas transfer station intended to transport gas from the Leviathan natural gas field in Israel into Jordan were torched by unidentified people in Irbid, northern Jordan on Saturday.According to Sky News Arabia, this is not the first attack against the gas transfer station in Irbid.Gas flow through the station is expected to start in the next few days.Jordanian citizens and politicians have protested the planned transfer of gas between the two nations.On Sunday, Jordan’s parliament filed an urgent memo requesting that a law be drafted to ban the import of gas from Israel, according to Asharq Al-Awsat. Dozens of activists held a protest in front of the parliament, calling for a cancellation of the gas trade deal.Jordan’s National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) signed a 15-year agreement with Noble Energy to purchase $10 billion worth of natural gas in September 2016. The Constitutional Court in Jordan ruled that the deal doesn’t need to be approved by the Jordanian parliament.In March, the Jordanian House of Representatives declared its “utter rejection” of the deal and requested that it be “canceled at any cost.”In July, Jordanian MP Tariq Khoury called on Jordanians to “sign a code of honor to blow up the gas pipeline from Israel to the land of Jordan,” according to the Palestinian Quds news agency.“Every free man in Jordan must sacrifice himself and his children to blow up a gas line that passes through Jordanian territory, we are all martyrs of the project,” said Khoury in a speech during a press conference to reveal details about the gas agreement.The parliamentarian spoke on the sidelines of a press conference held by MP Saleh al-Armouti, revealing information about the gas agreement and discussing “misinformation” by the Jordanian government about the deal.
Israel has made agreements to export natural gas to both Jordan and Egypt.The first natural gas pipeline from Israel to Jordan was constructed in the Sodom area by the Dead Sea in 2017, aiming to supply gas from the Tamar reservoir to private customers in Jordan. A second pipeline planned for the Beit She’an area is due to supply gas from the Leviathan reservoir to NEPCO.Globes and Eytan Halon contributed to this report.
