The US Navy and Marine Corps have arrived in the Mediterranean amid tensions between Turkey, Greece and Cyprus over oil exploration.
The arrival of the US military comes at the same time as oil surveyors from ExxonMobil arrived in the region after a standoff between Turkish naval vessels and Italian drillers over a disputed economic zone.
Turkey has threated to attack any oil and gas exploration vessels in certain areas in Cyprus' offshore maritime zone claiming them as its own thus preventing Cyprus from exploring the area for natural gas.
Greece's Foreign Ministry has rebuked Turkey's disregard for international law as a "blatant violation" of Cyprus' sovereign rights.
Meanwhile two consortia have expressed interest in participating in two Greek oil and gas exploration and exploitation tenders for the regions off Crete and in the Ionian Sea, the Hellenic Hydrocarbon Resources Management (HHRM) company said on Monday.
The two submissions are from U.S.'s Exxon Mobil, France's Total and Hellenic Petroleum for two blocks southwest of Crete, and from Spain's Repsol and Hellenic Petroleum for one block in the Ionian.