Israel must not miss the chance to form part of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), a former Biden administration official told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
Samantha Sutton, a fellow at the Atlantic Council and former Director at the US National Security Council, spoke to the Post on the sidelines of an IMEC Initiative workshop hosted on July 1 and 2 by the Maritime Policy and Strategy Center, which operates under HiCenter Ventures.
According to Sutton, the IMEC initiative has Haifa as one of its target ports, with plans to improve the port's infrastructure to make it suitable for commerce among Europe, India, and the Middle East.
“The main discussion currently is centered around the need to improve the port’s capacity, with current numbers being half of what would be needed in order to be a part of the IMEC initiative,” Sutton explained.
According to Sutton, Haifa will need to handle seven million Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) containers a year, while the Port Authority reports that current capacity is 2.5 million TEU.
Additionally, Sutton explained that the current crossing points between Israel and Jordan also don’t have the capacity needed for the IMEC initiative, with current estimates indicating that 200 trucks cross the border daily, while 7,500 would be needed when the initiative is fully operational.
“There are plans for infrastructure upgrades, new railways, and enhancements in both nations in order to get the IMEC initiative going,” she said.
The event, hosted in cooperation with Netanya Academic College and sponsored by the Ministry of Regional Cooperation and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, also took place in Haifa and included a visit along the planned route of the Israeli segment of the corridor, from the Port of Haifa to the Jordan River Bridges.
New government, coalition partners would help the initiative
Sutton also said that one of the main sources of pushback against Israel’s participation in the initiative is the current government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding that a change of government would be beneficial for Israel’s participation.
“It’s not necessary the government, but its coalition partners. A change would be very productive to push for Israel’s inclusion in the project among all the actors involved, from Middle Eastern participants to the European partners,” she said.
And while she thinks that a project bypassing Israel would be “too harsh,” she also points out that other nations are investing in their infrastructure to become the gateway to the Mediterranean for the Middle East and India.
“There are a lot of talks about the infrastructure development in the Tartus port in Syria, the Egyptians are making a lot of noise, and while Lebanon is not an option, the Saudis and the Turks are really exploring alternative pathways,” she said.
She later added that Israel’s exclusion from the project would represent a “worst-case scenario” with the international community pushing for Israel to be the main Mediterranean port in the initiative, even as Saudi Arabia pushes for other alternatives.
Strait of Hormuz crisis is not pushing the IMEC initiative further
Sutton also told the Post that the current crisis in the Strait of Hormuz is not pushing the Gulf States towards Israel’s inclusion in the initiative, with her saying that a peace agreement with the Palestinians and normalization plans would be actually useful.
“I think that after the war, these countries now view Israel more like a liability than a partner. And while in other regions involved in the initiative there are great relations with Israel, like in India, I don’t think the last war helped to improve the image of Israel in the Middle East,” she explained.
“What would be supportive is integrating the Jordanians and the Palestinians in the initiative. I believe that if IMEC helps establish normalization with Palestinians, and includes in some way the West Bank and Gaza, then the project and Israel’s participation would have much more support. And there are political actors in Israel who plan to run in the upcoming elections, interested in making this happen,” she added.
Even if the Strait of Hormuz was not the main focus, Sutton said many representatives from European countries at the conference expressed interest in using the corridor as an energy hub for processing and exporting fossil fuels.