Athens has strongly criticized the Special Envoy to the Secretary General of the United Nations in Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide, for statements he made to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) which the Greek Foreign Ministry sees as shredding doubts over the island’s sovereign rights.
«We recommend that Mr Eide studies carefully how the international Law of the Sea is applied in practice during the development of hydrocarbon resources in Norway’s Exclusive Economic Zone before he talks about the sovereign rights of the Republic of Cyprus», Konstantinos Koutras, spokesman of the Greek Foreign Ministry, has said.
In an interview to CNA, Eide said some countries do not share the opinion that seismic surveys in a certain country’s Exclusive Economic Zone are necessarily a violation of the relevant UN treaty. The UN envoy also referred to “interpretations” that cast doubt upon the legal status of the Republic of Cyprus.
The government in Nicosia has expressed disappointment for the UN’s envoy remarks.
Eide is on the island where on Tuesday he announced that UN-backed talks are expected to resume within weeks following the illegal elections in the northern Turkish-occupied area of this east Mediterranean island.
President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, suspended his participation in the peace talks last October, following a Navigational Telex or NAVTEX, issued by Turkey as Turkish seismic research vessel “Barbaros” violated the Republic’s Exclusive Economic Zone. The Turkish NAVTEX expired on Monday and Barbaros has left Cyprus` EEZ.