Tuesday , September 22 2026

Energy Strategy & Foreign Policy Energy Strategy & Foreign Policy

Trending

Tag Archives: Mecca Pact

Natural gas, corridors, and security: Why Turkey wants Egypt in the Mecca Pact

3 weeks ago ARTICLES, Energy Market, important 0

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (5th L), Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (C) and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (5th R) pose for a family photo after signing a trilateral joint defense agreement in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on August 7, 2026. [TUR Presidency /Murat Cetinmuhurdar – Anadolu Agency]

The Eastern Mediterranean’s importance is often measured by its gas discoveries, but reserves acquire strategic value only when they can reach consumers. Egypt’s Zohr, Israel’s Tamar and Leviathan, and Cyprus’s Aphrodite, Glaucus and Cronos have given the basin a substantial resource base. Yet Egypt occupies the pivotal position because its Idku …

Umud is a Washington-based Energy Strategist and Senior Foreign Policy advisor and author of US Energy Diplomacy in the Caspian Sea Basin: Changing Trends Since 2001. He is serving as Faculty Associate – at George Mason University. Umud holds a Ph.D. in International Relations. He comes with extensive expertise and professional experience in global energy market studies, energy security, the geopolitics of climate change, industrial policy for clean energy, as well as foreign policy in the context of climate change and energy transition.

His primary research interests lie in energy diplomacy and energy transition, U.S. energy policy, the geopolitics of energy, Iran-Turkey relations, as well as Iran-Russia relations, the Caspian Sea region, Central Asia and the GCC. He has written about the geopolitics of energy and natural gas, political economy of hydrocarbon states, sustainable cities and mobility, the pace and trajectory of energy transition, the geopolitics of US sanctions against Iran oil exports, and the geopolitics of energy in Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East, Central Asia, and Caspian Sea Region.