Congress advances bill sidelining Turkey on Mediterranean gas dispute

The Senate advanced a bill today that could sideline Turkey in its maritime gas dispute with Cyprus, marking another point of contention in the increasingly fraught US-Turkish alliance.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to advance the Eastern Mediterranean Security and Partnership Act mere days after Ankara dispatched a second drill ship off the Cypriot coast.

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the top Democrat on the committee, introduced the bill in April shortly before a trip to Athens where he lambasted Turkey in a speech, lumping the NATO ally in with “China and Russia” and blaming Ankara for “some of the most deep-seated problems in the region.” Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., is sponsoring a companion version of the bill in the House.  

The bill seeks to lift a decades-old arms embargo on Cyprus and deepen energy cooperation with Cyprus, Greece and Israel as overlapping maritime claims threaten to militarize the gas-rich eastern Mediterranean.