UN calls for peaceful resolution to Cyprus

Parties involved in a dispute over planned oil and gas drilling by Cyprus off the eastern Mediterranean island’s south coast should settle the issue peacefully, the United Nations said.Cyprus will go ahead with drilling in its offshore territory, defying Turkish objections and threats it will send warships to the area, Cypriot President Demetris Christofias said Sept. 13.Northern Cyprus and Turkey, the only country to recognize it as an independent state, may sign a continental-shelf agreement that would enable Turkish Cypriots to define and drill for oil and gas in waters they claim off the island if the Republic of Cyprus starts drilling, Turkey said yesterday.“The United Nations would appeal to all involved to resolve this matter in a peaceful manner,” Lisa Buttenheim, Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary General told reporters in Nicosia today, according to a statement on the U.N.’s Cypriot web site. “Natural resources, if they are discovered, would be for the benefit of all Cypriots under the framework of a federal united Cyprus.”Cyprus is divided after Turkey invaded the northern third of the island in 1974 in response to a coup inspired by the military junta then in power in Greece. The leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities resumed reunification talks in 2009 and met again today as part of negotiations.U.S.-based Noble Energy Inc. (NBL), which has the license to carry out exploration in Cyprus’s Block 12, is working with Israel’s Delek Group Ltd. (DLEKG), which proposed the construction of a natural gas pipeline to Cyprus. The two companies are partners in exploiting Israel’s offshore gas findings.Greece said yesterday it will lodge a formal protest with Turkey over plans by its neighbour to begin exploratory drilling in waters which, under the Law of the Sea Treaty, are part of the Greek continental shelf.