U.S. Leadership Needed on East Med Energy

Last week’s EU-Israel-Egypt natural gas agreement shows how the Eastern Mediterranean offers valuable opportunities to help reduce the dependence of America’s European allies on Russian energy. However, the peaceful development and transportation of these resources by Greece, Cyprus, Egypt and Israel also faces growing challenges from Turkey, Hezbollah and potentially others. To fully realize the region’s potential to advance Europe’s energy security in the face of Moscow’s aggression, the United States must reverse its hands-off approach and support its partners’ proactive heavy lifting to bring Eastern Mediterranean energy online – including by appointing a Special Envoy for the region and backing the expansion of natural gas infrastructure regionwide.