Turkish Anatolia news agency reported of Israel’s plan to deploy commandos to safeguard Israelis, natural gas plant on Cyprus. The news agency cites ‘anonumous source’ in the Greek part of the divided island. ANA estimates that the number of Israeli citizens in the area will rise to 30,000 people. ANA claims further that Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Cypriot president Dimitris Christofias had met in February in order to discuss the joint venture.
Below is the report via Israeli news portal YnetNews:
“”Netanyahu reportedly offered to undertake all of the expenses required to construct a gas plant needed to extract the natural gas found in the Mediterranean Sea. In exchange for his offer, the prime minister asked that all of the 10,000 personnel that would work at the plant be brought in from Israel with their families, increasing the number of Israeli citizens in the area to nearly 30,000.
The high number of Israelis in Greek Cyprus would present a security issue, which Netanyahu suggested be solved by sending as many as 20,000 Israeli commandos to safeguard both the Israelis and the natural gas plant, the agency said.
According to the report, Israel offered to place the personnel and commandos in Limassol in Greek Cyprus.”The Israelis who come, settle here for good,” the news agency’s source in Greek Cyprus said.
The Turkish news agency further cited a source, claiming that the Greek Cypriot government headed by Christofias, specifically asked Netanyahu to convince Israeli businessmen to halt their investments in Turkish Cyprus.
Israel and the internationally-recognized Republic of Cyprus have both discovered huge offshore natural gas deposits beneath the Mediterranean Sea, and have tentatively discussed cooperation on delivering gas to European and Asian markets.
The drilling for gas and oil in the seabed off Cyprus which began last year angered Turkey, which says it abuses northern Cypriots’ rights to the same resources.””
True or not? Time will show…
UPDATE:
On Monday, Israel denied ANA’s report.
In a written stement issued by the Israeli Embassy in Ankara, Israel denied the claims as “baseless and disconnected form reality.”
“Israel has never sent troops to any other country in its history,” the statement said, adding that it should be questioned why such a report was prepared by Anatolia in the first place. (Hurriyet Daily News)
Good and clever question …
“Israel has never sent troops to any other country in its history,”
this is, of course, a blunt lie. Not to mention the troops on occupied Palestinian and Syrian lands, Israel sent troops to apartheid SA, Idi Amin’s Uganda, Columbia, various NATO states, and many others which some are confirmed and other rumoured about..
Though 20K “commandos” seems a bit over the top (it’s more then the whole of the regular infantries that Israel has), it is a quite a sure things that Israel will maintain a military (if not already has it) on the island.