Trump's Gaza Takeover All About Natural Gas

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And now these fast-moving developments:

>Five days ago , Qatar's Emir was the first head of state to visit Syria since Assad's fall.

>Yesterday Syria's leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa was in Saudi Arabia for his first official foreign trip.

>Today al-Sharaa was in Turkey meeting with President Erdogan.

Hmmm...

Persian pipeline

Iran also has a plan to build a gas pipeline to Europe via Iraq and Syria. Called the Persian Pipeline project, there have been no development updates since 2016. Given Syria's new leadership and Iran's fast-growing political isolation, that deal won't happen any time soon.

Libya has been in an ongoing civil war/political crisis since the removal of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

But things are looking up. Two weeks ago a major oil conference was held in Tripoli with many Americans and Europeans in attendance. Today Libya's Minister of Economy & Trade went public with plans to hold a reconstruction conference asap.

With some of the world's largest reserves of hydrocarbons, Libya is hoping to jump back into the game in a big way.

Why are all of these countries-Israel, Qatar, Libya, Syria and Turkey-moving quickly to potentially develop their gas supplies and/or pipeline capacities?

Because Europe is desperate to replace Russian energy, and whoever supplies that gas will gain significant economic and geopolitical power.

All of these players know they need to move quickly before the war in Ukraine is forgotten and Russia swoops back in.

The US and EU want Russia out of Europe's energy supply chain. The solution? Multiple gas suppliers such as Israel, Qatar & Libya. Now is the time for all the gas players in the region to move.

Trump's Gaza decision

How does relocating Palestinians from Gaza to Jordan and/or Egypt help sell gas to Europe?

1) It removes a key political obstacle. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has long been a roadblock to regional economic development.

2) Privately, several Arab states told the US they were in favor of hammering Hamas. By removing the Palestinians completely from Gaza this problem is solved. Plus: no terror attacks on reconstruction crews; no acts of terrorism in Israel (inviting yet another Israeli response); and no chance onshore gas facilities are sabotaged.

3) This will fast-track gas development. With US backing, Gaza's gas fields can be quickly developed without outside interference. Pipelines can be built without the constant threat of terrorism and/or civil war getting in the way.

4) Divide and conquer. Make no mistake, if the bulk of the population of Gaza stays there it will be nearly impossible to accomplish anything. Dividing them up and sending some to Egypt and the rest to Jordan will sap any remaining kinetic energy, especially as the new Gaza is rebuilt and the promise of economic development materializes.

5) According to Bloomberg, rebuilding Gaza could cost more than US$80 billion. Someone has to pay for it and it won't be American taxpayers. Revenue from natural gas is the obvious solution.

The destruction of Gaza. Image: Resource Wars

None of this will be easy. There are still enormous challenges. But they are solvable: