Following their meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo joined in the sixth trilateral summit between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
The trilateral meeting focused on the EastMed pipeline project, which aims to construct a 2,000 kilometers gas pipeline linking Israel’s vast eastern Mediterranean gas resources to Europe through Cyprus, Greece and Italy, at a cost of 7 billion dollars.
It is important to note that while the United States has not been directly involved in the EastMed project, American Texas-based Nobel Energy holds close to 40 percent ownership of the Leviathan Gas field and another 25 percent of the Tamas gas field, both off the Israeli coastline. That is why, to assure the success of the project, the U.S. Administration sought to openly indicate its backing of Jerusalem, Nicosia and Athens.