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Sinai Explosion Cuts Israel Gas Supply

An explosion early Wednesday on a gas pipeline in the northern Sinai Peninsula cut supplies of Egyptian natural gas to Israel for the second time this year, according to Israeli officials, 传世私服 in what many here suspected was an act of sabotage by local Bedouin or possibly Palestinians. The blast came as the authorities in Cairo began to investigate public suspicions of corruption and mismanagement by the former Mubarak government in its gas export deal with Israel. It also prompted renewed calls in Israel for the country to reduce its dependency on outside sources and speed up development of its own newly found gas fields. “Regional instability is likely to continue in the near term, and we must attain energy independence,” Danny Ayalon, 魔域私服 the deputy foreign minister of Israel, said in a statement. Details of who carried out the attack remained unclear. There were no immediate reports of casualties and it was not known how long repairs would take. Egyptian gas has supplied up to 40 percent of Israel’s energy needs in the past. Uzi Landau, Israel’s minister of national infrastructure, told Army Radio on Wednesday that there was enough gas in the pipeline for the next few days, after which the Israel Electricity Corporation, which is almost entirely state-owned, would have to come up with a solution. Israeli officials said that the shortfall could be made up by the use of alternative fuels like coal and diesel. “We always have that option,”传奇私服 said Maya Etzioni, spokeswoman for the Ministry of National Infrastructure. “We will not be left without electricity.” Mr. Landau also told Army Radio that Israel had permitted additional Egyptian security forces to enter the Sinai in order to repair the pipeline, beyond the number of forces normally allowed in the area under the terms of the 1979 peace treaty between the two countries. Reports in Israel said that supplies of Egyptian gas to Jordan and Syria were also interrupted by Wednesday’s blast. The gas supply from Egypt to Israel shut down for more than a month after four armed men stormed a north Sinai gas terminal on Feb. 传世私服 传奇世界私服 5 and set off explosives there. Bedouin tribes in the Sinai have long complained of discrimination by the Egyptian authorities and clashed with Egyptian security services as mass protests spread earlier this year, bringing down President Hosni Mubarak.