Mubarak: We forced Israel to pay triple for gas

Egyptian daily "Youm7" has published the transcript of the former Egyptian's president's interrogation.

"We stopped exporting for sometime until we pushed them to raise the price from $1 to $3 and to allow us to review the price every three years. They agreed with great difficulty to both conditions," former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told investigator Mustafa Suleiman who questioned him over the natural gas treaty with Israel.

Egyptian daily "Youm7" published the transcript of the interrogation on Friday. Mubarak was questioned at the Sharm el-Sheikh hospital. He was questioned in late April and on May 10 about the gas contract.

The main charge in the Egyptian government's case against Mubarak is that the price of gas set in the contract with Israel was below the market price. The prosecutors claim that the deal cost Egypt $715 million.

Israel says that this figure is based on a "New York Times" article, which the paper later corrected. Yosef Maiman's Merhav Group, a shareholder in Egypt's East Mediterranean Gas Company (EMG), which handles the exports to Israel, says that Israel paid Egypt more than all its other export markets.

Mubarak denied any responsibility for setting the price of the natural gas in the contracts. He also denies any role in the appointment of his associate, Hussain Salem as chairman of EMG. Mubarak said that Salem "is a businessman man like many others. I met him in the US when I was vice president and I enlisted him and others to help develop Sinai. He's just a business acquaintance like other businessmen I deal with." He added that EMG "substantially contributed to the Egyptian intelligence service."

Mubarak said, "The deal dates from the time of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, I can't recall the exact date. He told me in a meeting that there was a clause in the peace treaty which allowed Israel to purchase petrol from Egypt by entering a public sale alongside other buyers and indeed petrol was exported to them for some time. When we were in need of gas I asked him whether we could exchange the export of petrol to the export of gas through public sales too. Then Dr. Atef Ebeed became prime minister. I instructed him to enter negotiations with the Israelis regarding the export of gas and eventually the gas line was built."

Ebeed was a representative of Egyptian Intelligence, which is responsible for Egypt's relations with Israel.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 17, 2011

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011

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