Tensions rocket over east Med offshore drilling

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WASHINGTON – Turkey once again is going up against Washington, this time over drilling rights off of Cyprus, in a conflict that could erupt into Turkish military action and prompt a major fight within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, possibly ripping the loose cohesion now holding the organization together, according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin:

At issue are plans for underwater drilling near Cyprus, which has been backed by Greece, a longtime political foe to Turkey. Greece is in a weakened position since it is about to go bankrupt, and Turkey apparently has decided now is a good time to take up the conflict over the drilling rights, which it claims.

Both Turkey and Greece are part of NATO, and any open conflict between the two countries could have the effect of disrupting the stability of the alliance.

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Turkey apparently thought it could pressure the Cypriot government to halt the drilling for a quick resolution, but that has not happened. And now the United States backs the drilling, since it is a U.S. company, Noble Energy, undertaking the work.

The immediate issue centers on Block 12, where drilling began last month. Noble Energy had gotten an exploration license in 2007 from the Greek Cypriot government in Cyprus' exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, a maritime boundary that gives a country the right to undertake economic activities up to 200 nautical miles from its coast.

Coincidentally, Block 12 also sits near the Leviathan and Tamar offshore fields which Israel claims in another maritime dispute with neighboring Lebanon. The maritime boundary stems from where the United Nations-imposed "blue-line" was drawn dividing Israel from Lebanon to the north.

By extension, a line drawn from that boundary cuts through the northern portion of the Leviathan and Tamar fields which Lebanon claims as within its EEZ. There are other Israeli off-shore maritime fields which are not in dispute including the Mari-B and Dalit fields. Last year, Lebanon took its claim to the U.N. Within the past two months, Israel has submitted its claim to the U.N.

The U.N. and the U.S. back Lebanon's claims. In addition, Hezbollah, which has considerable influence over the Lebanese government, already has threatened to defend militarily Lebanon's rights to its portion of the fields. The Lebanese government has echoed the same threat.

Noble Energy also was involved with an Israeli company in discovering those fields in 1998.

These two maritime disputes in which Turkey is directly involved, near Cyprus and involving Lebanon, have prompted Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to order warships into the eastern Mediterranean Sea where these disputed natural gas fields are located just off of Lebanon and Israel. Cyprus is about 75 miles northwest of Lebanon.

Erdogan also wants the warships to escort any future Turkish vessels taking humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in Gaza in defiance of the Israeli sea blockade – a development which could cause a separate crisis altogether.

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