How long is it the Eastern Mediterranean has been discussed here at PFYT's?Years and years... So, if you've been following along with the pipeline LNG and the whose in and out game, you'll at least be minimally aware of what's probably going on in this area.Connected to Syria. Turkey. Greece. Cyprus. Russia. Egypt. Israel etc.,Even the Kurds who want that Eastern Mediterranean access which is blocked, so far.It's all been written on, repeatedly. That said this latest news of a 'bipartisan bill' in the US Congress certainly throws more light on what's going on and why!Link
A bipartisan bill in U.S. Congress that would shift the U.S.’ primary alliance in the Eastern Mediterranean from Ankara to Athens ( recall my writing on that switch up?) took a key step toward adoption in late June when it was ratified by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.If approved, the East Med Act would allow the United States to fully support the trilateral partnership of Israel, Greece and Cyprus through energy and defence cooperation initiatives, in spite of opposition from its traditional ally, NATO-member Turkey. Among the provisions in the bill are the lifting of the long-standing arms embargo on Cyprus.“The natural gas initiative in the Eastern Mediterranean is defined by the alliance of these three countries (Greece, Cyprus, Israel), and Turkey is being completely excluded from the equation,” said Sibel Oktay, assistant political science professor at the University of Illinois-Springfield. “The bill should not only be considered from a security alliance but also from an energy cooperation perspective.”Meanwhile, Turkey’s increasingly tight links with U.S. rivals is causing headaches for Washington, according to Zemenides. “Successive administrations worked to minimise Russian and Iranian influence in the Eastern Mediterranean, while Turkey has become a conduit for both Moscow and Tehran to increase their influence in the region,” he said.
Such big big changes and largely unnoticed or obfuscated? I'm going with obfuscated myself!Read the pdf. (linked in the article, the url is below)https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/eastern%20med%20res.pdf Reread:
2019
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S-400's set to arrive in Turkey. US Set to Trigger Sanctions. Turkey’s Central Banker Fired
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Mediterranean Hot Zone- Danger Abounds
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Eastern Mediterranean: LNG, Petro dollar, Nation Breaking/Remaking
From 2017
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Eastern Mediterranean May Be Scene of First Conflict of 2018
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Greece, Israel (Stars Aligned?), Italy, Cyprus to Discuss East Mediterranean Pipeline
From 2013 a big three part series
Part 1: Cyprus, Israel, Turkey, Syria: NATO and global resource diversion/control
Part 2: Cyprus, Israel,Turkey, Syria: NATO and global resource diversion/control
"Since the discovery of the gas two years ago in nearby waters, Cyprus has been laying plans to get the gas to market by circumventing Turkey, which has occupied the northern third of the island for nearly 40 years"
Part 3- Cyprus, Israel, Turkey, Syria: NATO and global resource diversion/control”
We have huge energy resources. Extremely huge, untapped energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean and we have Assad planning and working towards making Syria central to the transport of all that energy wealth...... This move would have given Syria much influence in Europe and China.This plan would obviously have removed Israel and the US out of that central sphere of influence. I am quite certain the obvious outcome of Assad’s Four Seas plan was not lost on the US/Israel partnership. The implications of the plan are huge. Europe could have easily fallen out from under the influence of NATO. China and Russia were set to become ever larger global challengers to US hegemony. A game changer. Most definitely.
Therefore, what the destabilization of Syria is actually, really, truly and factually about is controlling the resources via the energy transits. In this way Syria shares much in common with Afghanistan.
Back then, in 2013, I misunderstood the Turkish angle or it changed prior to the so called peace accord with the PKK failing. The accord was doomed from the get go. In hindsight it was a time buyer and was intended as a distraction only. The PKK saw/knew they had the chance to steal northern Syria, partnered with the US and Israel, with an eye to getting in on the action in the eastern Mediterranean. That was the end for Turkey. Which I did catch onto in 2014- see below.
2011:
*An Israeli Natural Gas Pipeline to Greece
and many more, searchable here at the blog.
Of course betraying Turkey has been a mainstay topic here for years now..