Israel-UAE Oil Deal: Red Sea coral reefs ‘under threat’

Israeli environmentalists are warning that a UAE-Israeli oil pipeline deal threatens unique Red Sea coral reefs and could lead to "the next ecological disaster".

The agreement to bring Emirati crude oil by tanker to a pipeline in the Red Sea port of Eilat was signed after Israel normalised ties with the Gulf Arab nation late last year and should come into force within months.

With experts warning of possible leaks and spills at the ageing Eilat port, and the Israeli environmental protection ministry demanding "urgent" talks on the deal, activists mobilised last week.

They held a protest in a parking lot overlooking Eilat's oil jetty against what they see as a disaster waiting to happen, chanting that profits will be made "at the expense of corals".

"The coral reefs are 200 metres (yards) from where the oil will be unloaded," said Shmulik Taggar, an Eilat resident and founding member of the Society for Conservation of the Red Sea Environment.

"They say the tankers are modern and there won't be any problem," he said, warning however that "there's no way there won't be a malfunction".

He predicted that with the projected arrival of two to three tankers a week, traffic will be "back-to-back".

This, he said, would also impact the aesthetic of a city promoting ecological tourism.

"You can't sell green tourism when you have oil tankers by the dock," he said.

The Jewish state and the UAE established ties last year as part of the US-brokered "Abraham Accords".

One of the deals that followed was a Memorandum of Understanding between Israel's state-owned Europe-Asia Pipeline Company (EAPC) and a new entity called MED-RED Land Bridge Ltd -- a joint venture between Abu Dhabi's National Holding company and several Israeli firms.