In Cyprus, PM says countries will soon settle gas exports — and dairy imports

Finishing his meeting with his Greek and Cypriot counterparts, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that the countries will come to a decision on how to transport Israel’s gas to Europe within the next three to six months.

Cyprus has pressed Israel to come to a deal, and has proposed building a liquefaction terminal for piped-in Israeli gas, as an alternative to an American-backed Eastern Mediterranean pipeline idea that would flow from Israel to Cyprus and onwards to Greece.

Israel has also considered a pipeline offer to Turkey, as well as building its own floating liquefaction facility.

Netanyahu also says that infrastructure projects could be further expanded to create a Mediterranean-Asian corridor, should ongoing normalization efforts with Saudi Arabia succeed. That “may lead to a connection between India, the Arabian Peninsula, Israel, Cyprus and Greece,” he says. “I think we all see eye to eye on that.”

Netanyahu also touched on opening the tightly controlled Israeli domestic food market to imports.

“We are going to soon open our dairy products market, which is long overdue,” Netanyahu says, noting that Greek and Cypriot products are often cheaper than their Israeli substitutes.

“May the best yogurt win.”