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Mediterranean Gas Fields Boost Tension among Four Nations

A man sitting on the beach in Larnaca off a platform to explore for hydrocarbons (AP)
A man sitting on the beach in Larnaca off a platform to explore for hydrocarbons (AP)
    Ankara - Cairo - Mohamed Nabil Helmy and Saeed Abdelrazek
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Mediterranean Gas Fields Boost Tension among Four Nations

A man sitting on the beach in Larnaca off a platform to explore for hydrocarbons (AP)
A man sitting on the beach in Larnaca off a platform to explore for hydrocarbons (AP)

Oil and gas drilling in the eastern Mediterranean has heightened regional tension, especially between Turkey on the one hand and Greece, Cyprus and Egypt on the other.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened action against Greece and Cyprus in the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean unless the first stops interfering in Turkish territorial waters and the eastern Mediterranean.

Turkey’s president has issued a warning to Greece, Cyprus and international companies exploring for gas in the eastern Mediterranean not to “step out of line” and encroach on Turkish rights.

Erdogan cautioned those who go beyond their borders in the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean (referring to Greece and Cyprus) and make false calculations, saying they should not wrongly exploit Turkey’s focus on developments at its southern border.

“Our warships and security units are following all developments in the region with the instruction to do whatever is necessary,” Erdogan told members of his ruling AK Party in parliament.

“We warn those who overstep the mark in Cyprus and the Aegean,” he said.

“They are standing up to us until they see our army, ships and planes,” he said, comparing the situation in the Aegean Sea and Cyprus with the Syrian region of Afrin where Turkey is waging an offensive against the Kurdish YPG militia.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian Navy carried out on Tuesday a military drill on Mediterranean waters, launching four surface-sea and sea-surface missiles.

The army said these moves were part of a training to "deal with all threats facing territorial waters."

In recent days, Cairo and Ankara have entered into public disputes over gas drilling in the Mediterranean, especially since Egypt and Cyprus have a gas-sharing agreement.

Egypt and Cyprus are bound by the 2013 deal to determine how to share discovered gas deposits and determine their respective areas.

In a telephone conversation with Asharq Al-Awsat, Egyptian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmad Abu Zeid reiterated "Cairo's firm stance on the safety of the legal position of the agreement signed with Cyprus and its consistency with the rules of international law."

He stressed that “any attempt to prejudice or diminish Egypt's sovereign rights in that region (the Mediterranean) is considered unacceptable, and will be addressed.”

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Ukrainian Troops Have Engaged with North Korean Units for 1st Time in Russia, Official Says

The site of a Russian glide bomb strike on a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 04 November 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
The site of a Russian glide bomb strike on a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 04 November 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
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Ukrainian Troops Have Engaged with North Korean Units for 1st Time in Russia, Official Says

The site of a Russian glide bomb strike on a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 04 November 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
The site of a Russian glide bomb strike on a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 04 November 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)

Ukrainian troops have for the first time engaged with North Korean units that were recently deployed to help Russia in the war with its neighbor, Ukraine's defense minister said Tuesday.

Another Kyiv official said Ukraine's army fired artillery at North Korean soldiers in Russia's Kursk border region.

The comments were the first official reports that Ukrainian and North Korean forces have engaged in combat, following a deployment that has given the war a new complexion as it approaches its 1,000-day milestone.

Neither claim could be independently confirmed.

The Ukrainian and North Korean troops engaged in “small-scale” fighting that amounted to the start of Pyongyang’s direct involvement in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov told South Korea’s public broadcaster KBS in an interview.

North Korean soldiers are mixed with Russian troops and are misidentified on their uniforms, Umerov was quoted as saying by KBS. That makes it hard to say whether there were any North Korean casualties, he said.

Umerov reportedly said he expects that five North Korean units, each consisting of about 3,000 soldiers, will be deployed to the Kursk area.

Meanwhile, Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation branch of Ukraine’s Security Council, said “the first North Korean troops have already been shelled, in the Kursk region.”

He provided no further details.

Western governments had expected that the North Korean soldiers would be sent to Russia’s Kursk border region, where a three-month-old incursion by the Ukrainian army is the first occupation of Russian territory since World War II and has embarrassed the Kremlin.

US, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence assessments say up to 12,000 North Korean combat troops are being sent by Pyongyang to the war under a pact with Moscow.

The Pentagon said Monday that at least 10,000 North Korean soldiers were in Russia near Ukraine’s border.

More troops from North Korea’s 1.3-million-strong army may be slated for deployment in Russia, according to an analysis published Tuesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations, an international think tank.

The ramifications extend far beyond Europe, it said.

“Despite integration challenges — including communication barriers and differing military doctrines — the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia represents a significant shift in European and Asian security relations,” the analysis said. “For the first time in generations, troops from East Asia are actively engaging in a European conflict.”

The North Korean troops, whose fighting quality and battle experience is unknown, are adding to Ukraine’s worsening situation on the battlefield.

Ukrainian defenses, especially in the eastern Donetsk region, are buckling under the strain of Russia’s costly but relentless monthslong onslaught.

Russian advances have recently accelerated, with battlefield gains of up to 9 kilometers (more than 5 miles) in some parts of Donetsk, the UK Defense Ministry said Tuesday on the social platform X.

It said Russia has superior troop numbers, and despite heavy casualties the Kremlin’s recruitment drive is providing enough new troops to keep up the pressure.

Russia has held the battlefield initiative in Ukraine for the past year. Ukrainian officials have long complained that Western military support takes too long to arrive in the country.

In early October, Russian forces drove Ukrainian troops out of Vuhledar, a town perched atop a tactically significant hill in eastern Ukraine.

It was part of a key belt of Ukrainian defenses in the east. Russia’s next targets likely are the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk and the strategically important city of Chasiv Yar.

In the meantime, Russia has kept up its long-range aerial attacks on civilian areas of Ukraine, authorities say.

A Tuesday morning attack on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia killed six people and injured 23 others, regional Gov. Ivan Fedorov said.

The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andrii Yermak, said the Russian attacks “must be stopped with strong action.”

“A stronger position by (Ukraine’s Western) allies is needed,” he wrote on Telegram.