US supports Cyprus militarily in Mediterranean
For the first time, the Mediterranean region is experiencing
a new transformation that adds to the rapid pace of events in the region, as
the United States announced on July 9 that it partaking in military exercises
with Cyprus.
Strengthening cooperation
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo noted at a press
conference that the first-time military exercises with Cyprus come within the
framework of Washington's keenness to extend cooperation between the two
countries. He added that Washington will finance the exercises to give the
military forces in Cyprus important combat skills.
Pompeo said that strengthening relations with countries in
the region will play a strategic role in restoring calm and control over the
Mediterranean, as the US foreign military training program enables the US to
train foreign forces and enhance their combat capabilities.
Strategic transformation
The importance of the US step towards Cyprus lies in the
fact that it is the first time both countries will interact militarily,
representing a response to Congress’s decision to end historic contracts that
had brought about an arms embargo on the island.
The US arms embargo on Cyprus dates back to 1987, when
Washington decided to stop arming the country against the backdrop of the war
between Greek and Turkish Cypriots after Ankara's occupation of the island in
1974 and its sole recognition of the northern part of Cyprus as an independent
part of Turkey, while no other country in the world recognizes this division
and occupation.
Importance of timing
Timing is an important component of the recent US decision,
as it comes in light of the escalating tensions between Turkey and Cyprus
against the backdrop of Ankara’s illegal drilling in Cypriot territorial
waters.
It also means that Washington is announcing to Ankara that
it will protect Cyprus following successive threats by Turkish naval ships
against Cypriot drilling rigs. However, it is more likely that Washington's
moves are less about supporting Cyprus and more about putting pressure on the
Turkish government regarding several files.
Regional gas war
The US decision clearly indicates that Washington does not
want control of new energy sources in the hands of Turkey and Russia. Turkey
represents an important crossing for Russian gas to Europe, and it would not be
good for Ankara to control a new energy source after the energy crossing turned
it into a government that extorts Europe, whose leaders are still waving sanctions
without applying them.
Moreover, it adds new pressure to confuse the
Russian-Turkish relationship in the field of armaments, especially after the ongoing
conflicts over Washington's rejection of the Turkish government obtaining
advanced S-400 missile systems from Moscow, as well as Turkey's fluctuation
between the S-400 and the US F-35 aircraft. These strategic entanglements also serve
the Libyan and Syrian case against the Turkish project if nothing new comes to
the surface.
Cypriot welcome
While Cyprus strongly welcomed military cooperation with the
United States, Ankara expressed its anger, considering it a new source of
tension between the two countries.
This also comes at a time of European escalation against
NATO partner Turkey, as EU countries aspire to impose deterrent economic
sanctions on Erdogan's regime to punish him for illegal exploration of natural
gas in the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as the hostile behavior of Turkish
frigates against their Cypriot and French counterparts.
In this regard, Karam Saeed, a Turkish affairs researcher at
the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said that Turkey
covets the Eastern Mediterranean gas and has always used its equipment for
illegal exploration off the coast of Cyprus in defiance of international law.
But the international rapprochement between the Mediterranean countries on the
one hand and between NATO countries on the other hand may constitute a strong
front to undermine the Ottoman agenda in the region and curb Erdogan’s ambitions
of stealing gas wealth.
