CAIRO — Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek el-Mulla and the ministers of the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum — which includes Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, as well as the Palestinian Authority — signed Sept. 22 the charter to transform the forum into a regional organization based in Cairo, with the aim of formulating a common vision on natural gas policies in the region, and confronting any projects that are contrary to the objectives of the organization or conflict with the interests of its members.

Mulla said during the signing ceremony that the forum has officially become a large intergovernmental organization in the Mediterranean region, which gives it an institutional dimension in confronting the challenges facing the region.

This Egyptian move is an attempt to form an international lobby capable of confronting the Turkish actions in the eastern Mediterranean, and stopping what Cairo described as the “violation” of its economic rights and attacks in the Mediterranean by Turkey.

On the same day, Ankara immediately responded by saying that transforming the forum into an international organization is a new “unilateral” step, seeking “unilateral action away from Ankara, which has always demanded the necessity of achieving equitable sharing of natural resources in the eastern Mediterranean region.”