The Palestinian Authority (PA) has expressed its willingness to try and steal Cypriot maritime space with Turkey, in the same way Turkey attempted to steal Greek maritime space with the Muslim Brotherhood Government of National Accords based in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
Faed Mustafa, Palestine’s ambassador to Ankara, said in an interview with Turkey's Aydinlik newspaper that “We are open for every idea to deepen our relations with Turkey, and this includes a deal on exclusive economic zones."
“We also have rights in the Mediterranean. Palestine has shares in oil and gas located in the eastern Mediterranean. We are ready to cooperate in these areas and sign a deal,” he added.
The Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood-aligned Hamas, has a small Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
However, any such deal between the Palestinian Authority and Turkey would completely encroach on Cyprus' EEZ in defiance of international law, as according to the United Nations Charter Law of the Sea, this is how the EEZ's of the Eastern Mediterranean look:
Despite the realities of international law, Turkey is attempting to redraw the map by signing deals with the Muslim Brotherhood government in Tripoli and now with Palestine, that would look like this, with Israel substituted as Palestine instead:
“We couldn’t benefit from the gas due to Israeli pressure,” Mustafa said.
Greece and Cyprus have traditionally been the most friendly country towards Palestine in the European Union, but such provocations could change this.
It is for this reason that the Palestinian Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ministry quickly backed away from the comments made by the Palestinian Ambassador to Turkey.
According to the Palestinian News and Info Agency, the Ministry explained that the remarks by Mustafa were taken out of context and stressed that Palestine maintains close and good relations with the Mediterranean countries, including Greece, Cyprus and Turkey, on the basis of good-neighbourliness and international law, and is keen on developing these relations.
The ministry added that Palestine was not currently discussing such a deal with any of these countries.
However such statements are unlikely to ease any Cypriot caution on Palestinian and Turkish moves.
Palestine has a history of betraying friendly and allied countries, including most recently Syria, when Hamas trained Turkish-backed terrorists how to fight against the Syrian Army and dig tunnels that were used to deadly effect to blow up government buildings and military positions from beneath.
