Filenews 5 November 2025 - by Charalambos Zakos
The statement made by the US Ambassador to Ankara and Special Envoy for Syria, Tom Barak, about possible economic and energy cooperation between Turkey and Israel, lit fires.
The US Ambassador, speaking last Saturday at an international conference in Bahrain, which brings together ministers and other officials from the Middle East, "predicted" that the two US allies, Turkey and Israel, will not only not go to war, but will also proceed to trade cooperation.
In fact, he said that he is betting that, if the ceasefire in Gaza is maintained, in a short period of time Turkey and Israel will proceed with economic cooperation, adding that, in his opinion, this cooperation will be from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean.
These statements did not go unnoticed in Ankara, with the Hurriyet newspaper publishing an analysis. According to a columnist for the newspaper, Mr. Barak's words lead to the conclusion that the US wants to promote a new strategy in the Middle East, adding at the same time that the reference to "cooperation from the Caspian to the Mediterranean" refers to the US plan for an energy corridor that will unite Turkey and Israel, among others.
Erdogan's partner reacted
At the same time, Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government partner and leader of the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), Devlet Bahçeli yesterday strongly criticized the US Ambassador, describing his statements as a deep delusion, stressing that "while the perpetrators of the genocide in Gaza have not yet been held accountable and the two-state model has not yet been implemented, on what basis, with what right and with what authority does this ambassador claim that we will cooperate with Israel?", calling on him to stop interfering, as he underlined, in Turkey's foreign policy.
The design is dated
Of course, the plan and thoughts for an energy interconnection between Turkey and Israel through a natural gas pipeline from the Leviathan field did not emerge today, but it has been going on for at least a decade.
In fact, in 2017 the two countries were said to be very close to an agreement, after the then Israeli Minister of Energy, Yuval Streitz, had stated in Hurriyet that Israel is very likely to export its natural gas to Turkey and Europe through the Turkish gas transmission system, adding that this could be done by the beginning of 2019, even including the Republic of Cyprus in the planning.
In particular, the then Israeli Minister of Energy said that in the future the pipeline (Turkey-Israel) could also transport natural gas from the Republic of Cyprus, stating that the Cyprus problem can be solved and the pipeline can pass through the EEZ of Cyprus.
