Foreign Policy

The complex politics intersecting with the banking crisis in Cyprus. Israel, Turkey and Greece claim rights to a new oil field, but...

"Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria are also advancing claims to the "Aphrodite" gas field off Cyprus -shades of the tense South China Sea. But most likely to clash are the Turks and Israelis.
Turkey is still boiling mad over the Israeli seizure of a Gaza bound relief ship in 2010 and the killing of nine Turks.
Israel has emerged as a major backer of the embattled Greek government, using its influence in Washington and financial clout. 
Russia, increasingly interested in the Greece-Cyprus-Syria region, says it will keep a nine-ship squadron in the eastern Mediterranean as Moscow’s worries over Syria, now under western siege, grow by the day. Moscow is hinting that it mighty bail out Cypriot banks in exchange for the lion’s share of the "Aphrodite" gas fields.
All the elements are in place for a very nasty, dangerous multi-party confrontation in the eastern Mediterranean. The EU could have pre-emptied this danger by using a bank rescue of Cyprus to force Greek Cypriots to make a sensible peace deal with their Turkish neighbors. And by forcing Cyprus to fairly share the offshore gas bonanza with neighboring states. But it probably won’t."

What a mess. Maybe this is why Netanyahu suddenly apologized to Turkey for killing those relief workers in 2010.