Page 11 - MEOG Week 24

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Warnings don’t stop Cyprus issuing Turkish drill ship arrest warrants
east med
DESPITE statements from Turkey that it would be guilty of “insolence” if it issued arrest warrants for the crew of a Turkish drill ship, cyprus went ahead and did just that on June 13.
The ship is anchored close to the coast of cyprus where it is allegedly infringing exclusive territory over which Nicosia has rights to explore for oil and gas.
“We can con rm that warrants were issued. It’s a double digit number,” a cypriot official was cited as saying by Reuters, declining further comment.
Turkey said on June 10 that the arrest warrants
would “cross the line”, with a Turkish foreign ministry spokesman saying: “No one should have any doubt that the necessary response will be given, in case of such an insolence.”
ankara insists that the Turkish cypriots that since 1974 have controlled a breakaway territory in the north of cyprus are entitled to an equal share of oil and gas resources around the island.
Turkey claims territory o the west of cyprus is part of its continental shelf.
e EU and US have warned Turkey not to drill for oil and gas in the de ned exclusive eco- nomic zone claimed by Nicosia.™
Iran cranks up nuclear deal pressure with “20%” uranium threat
iran
IRaN’S atomic agency said on June 17 that Teh- ran might start the process of enriching uranium up to 20%, closer to weapons-grade, from July 7. e move was seen as a signi cant escalation of the Iranians’ recently adopted strategy of turning up the heat on the remaining nuclear deal signa- tories to do more to help Iran’s economy if they want to see the accord kept intact.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Ira- nian atomic Energy authority, threatened the possible development a er announcing that Iran has already sped up its countdown to breaching the nuclear deal by enriching uranium at a rate that will mean it breaching its uranium stockpile limit in the next 10 days.
Kamalvandi said Iran needed 5% enrichment for its nuclear power plant in the southern Ira- nian port of Bushehr and 20% enrichment for a Tehran research reactor.
e nuclear deal limited Iran to enriching uranium to 3.67%, which is enough for power
plants and peaceful purposes. Ninety percent is considered weapons grade. Experts say the tech- nical leap necessary to get to 90% concentration from 20% is relatively straightforward, because enrichment becomes less challenging at higher levels. Moving from the natural state of 0.7% concentration to 20% takes 90% of total energy required, they say.
tremendous pressure
Iran’s economy is under tremendous pressure from US sanctions but, despite promises, par- ticularly from Europe, the remaining ve major power signatories to the nuclear deal (formally the Joint comprehensive Plan of action, or JcPOa) have in the eyes of the Iranians done next to nothing to help protect their country’s trade.
“In 10 days’ time... we will pass this limit,” Kamalvandi added.” ere is still time for the Europeans... But the Europeans have expressed
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