United States shows support for Cyprus in eastern Mediterranean conflict
The tension in the eastern Mediterranean is growing at times and a military confrontation, a consequence of the conflict for economic rights in this area between Greece and Turkey, is hanging by a thread.
If on Saturday the European Union's foreign ministers met to discuss the conflict and announced their intentions to impose sanctions on Ankara, on Sunday the Turkish Government sent another ship, the Yavuz, to explore for oil, accompanied by three support and supply ships - the Orhan Bey, the Ertugrul Bey and the Osman Bey - ignoring European warnings.
In a statement issued by Navtex, it was announced that the Turkish drilling vessel Yavuz, will sail in an area of 600 square kilometres about 120 kilometres south-east of the town of Paphos on the island of Cyprus. Prior to this, the Navtez station in Cyprus published a message calling it a "serious violation of international law as well as a crime under Cypriot law".
On the same day, a senior U.S. State Department official said Washington supports Cyprus' right to explore oil reserves discovered in its waters.
According to the Associated Press, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale said the work to find hydrocarbon resources is aimed at "achieving lasting energy security and a prosperous economy throughout the Mediterranean.
The U.S. Embassy in Nicosia issued a statement announcing a meeting between Hale and the Cypriot foreign minister to discuss "the growing strategic importance" of the eastern Mediterranean, in addition to recent developments in the region.
For the American official, these resources, which are causing a confrontation between Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, "must be shared equally between Cypriots, Greeks and Turks".
Turkey, which does not recognize ethnically divided Cyprus as a state, demands that 44% of the island's economic area be subordinated to Ankara and insists on its right to carry out such explorations in order to defend its interests and those of the Turkish Cypriots.
Last week, Turkey resumed energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean after Greece and Egypt signed a maritime delimitation agreement. But after declaring the Greek-Egyptian agreement "null and void", the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan authorised the prospecting of Oruç Reis to continue its activities in a disputed area.
The situation in the Aegean made the French President, Emmanuel Macron, take action and announcean increase of the French military presence in the Mediterranean, in support of the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
