US supports Cyprus militarily in Mediterranean

Nahla Abdel Moneim

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.