Fannon: no winners if energy tensions continue or escalate

US Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources, Francis Fannon has warned that everyone in the region will lose if the conflict over who will control the biggest share of the hydrocarbons pie continues.

Fannon, who was in Cyprus earlier in the week, in an interview with Kathimerini on Sunday, again called for restraint by all parties in the region.

He made it clear that the current positive economic outlook for the region, as exemplified by the presence of US giants in the Eastern Mediterranean would not be as promising if tensions continued, or escalated.

“Nobody is going to win in the region if the debate continues about who should get the biggest share of the pie in terms of natural resources,” Fannon was quoted as saying in a translation from Greek.

The aim of the US, he added was to have “calm, dialogue and to understand that the economic prospects that are currently in place will not continue to exist if tensions either continue or escalate.”

He reiterated that the US had called on all parties to halt any provocative action that could potentially cause further instability in the region.

During his Cyprus visit, Fannon said Washington supported the island’s offshore gas exploration activities.

“We support the Republic of Cyprus to develop its resources in its EEZ,” he said, the revenues of which could be used for both communities in the context of an overall settlement.

The United States views energy development of the region as a means for broader political stability and prosperity, the US official said.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.