Terrorist entity refuses to repay Iran for its share of pipeline- crook suppresses info on 50-year legal battle with Iran

January 21, 2015 
Netanyahu signed secrecy order to conceal Israel-Iran legal battle
Private interests in Israel ripped off Iran after the Revolution

PM intervened to hide details of decades-long legal struggle in European courts, claiming disclosure would harm national security and foreign ties.

By Aluf Benn Ha'aretz

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly objects to revealing any information about the "oil arbitration" case that has been conducted between Israel and Iran in European courts for more than 20 years, the details of which were exposed on Haaretz.com this weekend.

Netanyahu signed a secrecy order in November 2013 banning the publication of information on the arbitration, because it "could possibly bring about harm to national security and foreign relations."

Netanyahu intervened to head off a petition filed in Jerusalem District Court in June 2013 by attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, head of Shurat Hadin - Israel Law Center, under the Freedom of Information Law. The petition was against the foreign and justice ministries, requesting information about the arbitration proceedings with Iran.

The ministries rejected the request completely, and that case is now being heard in the Supreme Court, under a confidentiality order, after the Jerusalem District Court ordered the state to provide a proper response. The plaintiffs filed an updated brief last week, and the court is now awaiting the state's response.

The National Iranian Oil Company has been conducting a number of international arbitration proceedings against Israel. It has demanded compensation for its share of the joint Israeli-Iranian project for transporting and selling Iranian oil, via Israel to European customers, which was launched in 1968. At the heart of the deal stood the construction of a trans-Israel pipeline from Eilat to Ashkelon, as well as two oil storage facilities and a fleet of tankers.

The deal was hidden by a veil of secrecy, and Israel imposed censorship on any publication concerning the pipeline, its financing and operation.

A similar, smaller arbitration suit concerns a debt from the sale of Iranian oil to three Israeli fuel companies in 1979, on the eve of the Islamic Revolution. The arbitration suits are estimated to be for billions of dollars, given the interest and other costs that have accumulated over the decades.

After the Shah of Iran was deposed in January 1979, Tehran turned from being Israel's ally to its enemy. Israel continued to operate the pipeline, after nationalizing it in practice using a legal trick, and Iran sued Israel in an international arbitration process to receive its share of the profits of the joint venture.

Israel has lost a number of rounds in the arbitration, first in France and more recently in Swiss courts, where it tried to stop the arbitration process and avoid paying any money.

Both the Israeli and Iranian governments have avoided discussing the legal battle publicly, even though the various legal decisions have been published openly in Europe and raised a lot of interest in international legal circles.

Under the terms of the agreement, whose full content has yet to be made public, the Israeli government agreed to grant the oil project a 49-year concession, exemption from taxes and planning, and building leeway.

Censorship was imposed on press reports relating to the pipeline, its funding and sources of fuel. In those days of running roughshod by Mapai - the forerunner of Labor - and in the absence of green organizations and High Court of Justice petitions, the project was implemented in record time: by the end of 1969, oil was flowing through the pipeline. Israel built a second refinery in Ashdod and storage tanks at both ends of the pipeline.

http://henrymakow.com/2015/01/israel-rips-off-iran%20.html