Turkey will be bigger threat to Israel if Greece backs down, says Greek advisor

If Turkey succeeds in getting Greece to capitulate over an undersea EastMed pipeline project, then Turkey will become an even bigger threat to Israel than Iran, Greece's national security advisor told Israeli television on Tuesday.

“If Greece capitulates, if they manage to corner us and to put us out of the picture, then Israel at some point will suffer. Turkey will become a threat for Israel, bigger than Iran,” Admiral Alexandros Diakopoulos said in an exerpt of an interview shown on Israel's i24News television channel.

Diakopoulos was discussing Greece's concerns over Turkey's opposition to the Israeli-Greek-Cypriot pipeline which, when completed, will carry gas from new offshore deposits in the southeastern Mediterranean to continental Europe.

The accord for the pipeline was signed in Athens by the leaders of Greece, Cyprus, and Israel in January 2020.