On the first visit of an Israeli prime minister to Cyprus on Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the flight to the island country took 45 minutes and 63 years. Cyprus is apparently a strategic part of Netanyahus plan to create an alliance to counter Turkeys influence and activities in the region, and Netanyahu -- who was accompanied by National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau -- was welcomed warmly in Nicosia. The prime minister held meetings with Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias and other government officials, focusing on cooperation in the areas of search and rescue efforts, and energy, but Israels sour relations with Turkey loomed in the background of the talks. Israel and Turkey have been at odds since the Gaza Flotilla incident in May 2010 in which an Israeli commando team raided the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara, one of several ships attempting to breach Israels naval blockade of Gaza, in an incident which turned violent and left nine Turkish citizens dead. Cyprus has its own troubles with Turkey. The island was split into an internationally recognized Greek south and a breakaway Turkish north in 1974 when Turkey invaded following a coup by supporters of Cyprus union with Greece. The discovery of oil fields off the coast of Cyprus has led to further tension between Turkey and the Greek Cypriots, with the former warning the latter of claiming any rights to its asserted maritime resources. Israel and Cyprus are both currently exploring oil resources off the southern coast of the Island, and Israeli energy company Delek, working together with U.S. company Noble Energy, has recently discovered an additional estimated 5 trillion to 8 trillion cubic feet (140 billion to 230 billion cubic meters) of natural gas in Israels exclusive Mediterranean Sea economic zone, after discovering 16 trillion cubic feet (453 billion cubic meters) in the Leviathan gas field, which lies some 60 km (40 miles) off Cyprus shores in its exclusive economic zone. Turkey is contesting any natural resource discovery that involves Cyprus, insisting that the northern part of the island which it controls is entitled to benefit from any such find. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has threatened Cyprus with military action if it pursues its offshore drilling program with Israel, calling the program madness. An announcement by Cyprus recently that it was seeking proposals for further gas exploration in its territorial waters has infuriated Turkish officials. A statement by the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Thursday called the move a provocation concerning the sovereignty of Cyprus, and said, The Turkish government will do everything it can to protect the rights of Turkish Cypriots and will not allow foreign energy companies under any circumstances to carry out unauthorized gas or oil exploration activities. A statement by the Prime Ministers Office on Thursday said that within two to four months an interoffice committee would decide if the natural gas reserves found in the Mediterranean would be exported by a joint Israel-Cyprus endeavor, or whether Israel would export the gas on its own. If the decision involves Cyprus, one possibility will be to connect the gas fields of the countries via a sea-based pipeline some 40 km (25 miles) long. According to the Prime Ministers Office, Russia, China and India are also interested in the project, and their involvement will serve as a deterrent against any attempt to sabotage it. In another energy-related development, a Cyprus-based company says it is planning to lay a 2,000 megawatt undersea electricity cable linking Israel, Cyprus and Greece. Quantum Energy official George Killas told The Associated Press that the cable would relay electricity to Greece and the rest of Europe from Cypriot and Israeli natural gas deposits that were recently discovered in the eastern Mediterranean between the two countries. The 998 km (620 mile) cable will reach a maximum depth of 2,000 meters (6,562 feet) and will take around three years to complete. As a possible sign of Israel-Cyprus military cooperation, reports in recent days have claimed that Israel intends to station combat aircraft at the Andreas Papandreou airbase in Paphos, a coastal city in the southwest of Cyprus, a move that has raised concerns in Turkey that Israel and Cyprus were developing an alliance against it. Netanyahu, however, sent a calming message to Turkey during his one-day visit to Cyprus on Thursday, saying to reporters that Israels relations with Cyprus will not lead to a military pact against Ankara. Israel will not use Cypriot air force bases, because we have no need to use them, Netanyahu said. Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias confirmed Netanyahus statement, saying, The cooperation between us poses no threat to anyone. The opposite is true -- Turkey is the one threatening Cyprus. Commenting on recent developments with Iran, Netanyahu said that sanctions were not stopping Irans nuclear program and wondered if the West is applying enough force to cause Iran to think twice about it. We hope the sanctions will work, but the guided tour Ahmadinejad received among the centrifuges recently proves that Iran is still arrogantly opposing international decisions and is sending government-sponsored terrorists to carry out attacks, Netanyahu said. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Thursday, The international community must cooperate to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons through the imposition of paralyzing sanctions. Meanwhile, during his visit to Cyprus, Netanyahu met with the head of the security guards at the Israeli Embassy in Cairo during the riots in September 2011. The guard, who prefers to be referred to only by his first name, Yonatan, is currently employed in the Israeli Consulate in Nicosia. He told the prime minister he and his wife were expecting a baby soon. The two recalled the trying moments when six security guards, including Yonatan, were trapped in a room in the embassy while a raging crowd attacked and swarmed the compound. Netanyahu stayed in constant contact with Yonatan throughout the incident, and in Cyprus told the guard he was glad to see him alive and well.
