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This might prove to be significant in the near future,
and possibly more effective than taking Dubya out of Sharon’s flinty pockets. Israel reaches deal with Turkey to buy water and more, by Reuters ISTANBUL - Israel said Friday it had agreed to buy 15
million cubic meters (530 million cubic feet) of water annually from Turkey for
20 years, but did not disclose the price it would pay in its first ever water
import deal. Turkey is Israel's closest Muslim ally
and the two countries have military cooperation agreements. They have been
discussing a deal on water sales for a long time and reached a tentative accord
last year, but then failed to agree on a final price. "I hope we can begin [importing the water] in the
very near future," Infrastructure Minister Yosef Paritzky told reporters
on the sidelines of an international economic conference organized by the
Istanbul chamber of commerce. Asked how much the
deal, due to be signed in the next few days, was worth, he said: "[We
have] the best possible price." Last October, Israel agreed to buy 60 million cubic meters a
year from desalination plants at 55-56 cents per cubic meter. Paritzky added the two countries have still to decide how to
transport the water, which will come from the Manavgat River in southern Turkey.
The options include tankers and a possible pipeline across the eastern Mediterranean.
Quizzed about the pipeline,
Paritzky said this might not be limited to transporting water. "We are thinking seriously about
this. Along with water, we could also buy first natural gas, then
electricity," he said. Israel was ready to provide know-how in the area of irrigation, where
it had considerable expertise, Paritzky said. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Also see Friedman’s Passions and Interests
and the NYT editorial, The Cost of Israeli Settlements Furthermore, if they don’t find WMD in Iraq, it will
lend credence to the terrorists who believed that the only weapons that
mattered were those conventional ones that couldn’t reach the US and UK, but which
could reach Israel. Just another
layer in the leak controversy and why the memos have gone out to discredit
Wilson as a lefty partisan. Wasn’t
he dispatched by Cheney? KWC |
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