Israel and the Palestinians are eyeing talks to develop a gas field off the Gaza coast and other initiatives for an independent Palestinian infrastructure, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday. The announcement anticipated a meeting on Saturday of world powers trying to revive peace talks mired by long-running Israeli-Palestinian disputes about West Bank boundaries as well as the inflexibility of Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers.
Middle East diplomacy has been thrown into further disarray by the weeks of political upheaval in neighbouring Egypt - the key regional powerbroker - and other Arab states. Hosting peace envoy Tony Blair, Netanyahu said the "Gaza Marine" gas field should be tapped together with an Israeli field nearby.
"This is something that the Palestinian Authority expressed interest in," Netanyahu told Blair during a media appearance. "I think we're going to begin discussions and negotiations to facilitate both, where the revenues from the Palestinian field go to the Palestinian Authority and the revenues from the Israeli field go to the Israeli government and I think this is good for stability, good for prosperity and good for peace."
He also outlined new electricity, water and sewage projects "intended to make Gaza independent of Israeli infrastructure". Israel quit the strip in 2005 but still supplies much of the basic needs of its 1.5 million Palestinians while enforcing a blockade intended to place curbs on Hamas.
Blair said US-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who shelved talks with Netanyahu in September and is also at loggerheads with rival Hamas, sought "approval in principle of the supply of Palestinian offshore gas to Gaza power plants and specific project approval to a new power station there". "Clearly there are many items to be worked out but this is an important breakthrough for the Palestinian Authority, people in Gaza and the broader region," Blair said. The Abbas administration and Hamas had no immediate comment.
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