Turkey has asked Italy to halt the drilling activities of the Italian energy giant Eni in South Cyprus’ EEZ, Turkish daily ‘Aksam’ reports.
The Eni-Kogas constortium began exploratory drilling activities in bloc 9 of the South’s EEZ and are now being monitored by a Turkish naval frigate.
According to the paper, Turkey told Italy that it should curtail Eni’s drilling activities if it wants to contribute to the Cyprus negotiations.
The paper writes that Italy, which currently holds the EU Council presidency, took an initiative for the re-launching of Cyprus negotiations. However, Ankara maintains that the island’s natural resources. both on and offshore, belong to all Cypriots and unilateral actions to explore for hydrocarbons are not acceptable.
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