Israel puts off signing $35 billion gas deal with Egypt, prompts US energy secretary to cancel visit

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen has said that his refusal to sign a $35 billion gas agreement with Egypt has prompted his U.S. counterpart to cancel a planned trip to Israel.

A statement from Cohen’s office on Thursday night said that U.S. officials had been “exerting a great deal of pressure on Israeli officials” to approve the deal, but it said that the minister would refuse to do so “until Israeli interests are secured and a fair price for the Israeli market is agreed upon.”

The move, the statement said, prompted U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright to cancel his trip to Israel. Wright’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment early Friday morning. U.S. officials in Israel declined to comment. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cohen’s refusal to sign the deal appears to freeze progress on what his office says would be the largest gas export agreement in Israel’s history, exporting natural gas from the Leviathan gas field to Egypt.

The gas field is located in the Mediterranean Sea, 130 kilometers (80 miles) off the coast of northern Israel, according to Chevron, a U.S. gas corporation that operates the plant.

Cohen’s move appears to risk inflaming Israel’s relations with the United States and Egypt, both key brokers of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, which has paused more than two years of war. The statement from Cohen’s office said that efforts have been made to settle “the political issues between Israel and Egypt,” but didn’t specify further.