Turkey has warned Israel and Egypt not to overstep the mark after suggesting that military action in the East Med against Turkish forces was an option in protecting Cyprus’ energy exploration.
Ankara was riled by comments made by Israeli ambassador Sammy Ravel and his Egyptian colleague Mai Taha Mohamed during the overseas Cypriot conference in Nicosia last week.
“We find the words of support offered by some ambassadors in recent days to the Greek Cypriot administration for its unilateral hydrocarbon explorations in the Eastern Mediterranean out of place,” a Turkish foreign ministry statement said.
“We advise the ambassadors of the relevant nations to not exceed their limits,” it added.
During a discussion at the conference on the island’s energy exploration in the East Med Ravel said that Israel firmly supported the right of Cyprus to explore for gas and hoped issues could be solved without military intervention.
Mohammed, meanwhile implied Egypt would not hesitate to support Nicosia against Turkish aggression in the island’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
“We hope that we will not reach the point where we will have to use the military in the region…but we are going to offer every possible help to Cyprus,” said the Egyptian ambassador.
And during the same conference, US ambassador Cathleen Doherty said Turkey’s behaviour in trying to block energy exploration in Cyprus’ EEZ was deemed “unacceptable” by Washington.
Ankara is opposed to what it calls “unilateral moves” by Cyprus to exploit natural gas reserves in its waters to the exclusion of the Turkish Cypriots.
It insists that a peace deal must come first before international companies can start exploring for energy sources.
Cyprus has signed maritime demarcation agreements with its neighbours Egypt and Israel and hopes to export the gas to Europe via an undersea pipeline to Greece. This option would in effect bypass Turkey, leaving it out of the Eastern Mediterranean gas bonanza completely.
In February, Turkish warships blocked a drillship commissioned by Italian energy company ENI, from drilling in block 3 of Cyprus` EEZ. After a stand-off lasting a few weeks, the drillship was forced to abandon the mission in March.
Ankara has consistently warned foreign companies against drilling offshore Cyprus while the island’s division is unsolved.
Cyprus Energy Minister George Lakkotrypis said last week the energy issue should not be linked to the Cyprus problem.
“We continue with our plans, which cannot be changed because of contractual obligations and, as the President of the Republic said a few days ago, under no circumstances should developments in the Cyprus problem affect our energy programme,” said Lakkotrypis.
Nicosia insists that the island’s energy wealth belongs to all Cypriots, but lack of a reunification deal should not infringe on its sovereign right to explore for energy sources.
ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum have an exploration license for block 10 of Cyprus’ EEZ and will conduct two exploratory drills towards the end of the year.
Texas-based Noble Energy in 2011 made the first discovery off Cyprus in the Aphrodite block estimated to contain around 4.5 trillion cubic feet of gas – it has yet to be commercialised.
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