Athens receives strike from US in East Mediterranean

Greece has received a strike from the US after freezing the excavation works of US-owned ExxonMobil and French company Total off the island of Crete in the East Mediterranean, CNN Turk reported on Friday.

According to TRT, this came following the US announcement that it had stopped its support for the East Mediterranean gas pipeline, intended to supply gas from Israel to Europe.

According to CNN Turk, the East Mediterranean gas pipeline would have bypassed Turkey and violated its continental shelf.

ExxonMobil and Total obtained licenses from Greece in 2019 and announced freezing their seismic scanning planned to take place between January and February 2022.

The US Embassy in Athens announced in a statement: “We are shifting our focus to electricity interconnectors that can support both gas and renewable energy sources.”

Read: US abandons plans for EastMed pipeline due to ‘destabilising’ regional tensions

Meanwhile, a report on TRT pointed out that the US viewed the project as a “primary source of tension”, stating that it is “destabilising” the region by putting Turkey and regional countries at odds.

At the same time, Arabi21 reported Greek newspaper Kathimerini saying that Greece views the Turkish reception of the strike as a non-official recognition of the former’s policies during the past four years in the East Mediterranean.

The latest developments in the energy field in the East Mediterranean could affect the future of the alliance between Greece and Greek Cyprus.

The EastMed pipeline is another front in the encirclement of Turkey