Report: Israel, Turkey must form pro-Western water alliance

WASHINGTON — Turkey and Israel must lead a pro-Western alliance that will impose a water regime on the rest of the Middle East, a new report says.

The report, issued by the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies, said such an alliance would also comprise Jordan and Lebanon and include a defense pact to guarantee regional water supplies. The U.S.-supported regime would insist on Lebanon's independence from neighboring Syria and maintain deterrence against the Baathist regimes in Damascus and Baghdad.

"Its heart would have to be concrete military coordination, including mutual defense agreements over regional water supplies," the report, authored by Paul Michael Wihbey and Ilan Berman, said. "In other words, the allies, supported by the U.S., would have to make their plans regarding water as well as regarding other vital issues, and impose them on opponents."

The institute is based in Washington and Jerusalem.

The report warns that Syrian efforts to gain control over such rivers as the Jordan and the Euphrates and Tigris threaten both Israel and Turkey. Syria is joined by Iraq in the campaign for water rights over the Euphrates and Tigris.

"It is all too clear that were Syria to gain its objectives, the result would be less an efficient use of the region's water [much less a fair one] that it would be the political-military eclipse of Israel, Jordan, and to a lesser extent, Turkey as well," the report said.

The report urges Israel and Turkey -- backed by the United States -- to free Lebanon from Syria's influence. Lebanon has one of the largest water reserves in the Middle East. Currently, Syria takes much of Lebanon's water resources, including the Orontes river in the north. The Orontes flows through Syria to Turkey.

Israel and Turkey, however, are unaware of the need for cooperation in establishing a regional water regime. The report said neither country is being encouraged by the United States.

"Such a plan, of course, would have to begin with restoring the independence of Lebanon," the report said. "Turkey seems not to have entertained the thought, while Israel is grappling with whether to maintain its own independence."