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2019-12-18 Europe
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In blow to Turkey, US Congress ends decades-old arms embargo on Cyprus
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[IsraelTimes] Senators who spearheaded bill say they hope move will foster cooperation between the Mediterranean island nation, Greece and Israel.
The US Congress voted Tuesday to lift a decades-old arms embargo on Cyprus, defying The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
 ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
by seeking warmer ties at a time of renewed tensions.
The Senate approved the measure as part of a massive defense spending bill that passed 86 to eight and already went through the House of Representatives, with US President Donald Trump
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
likely to sign it.
The United States imposed an embargo on the full island in 1987 with an aim to prevent an arms race and encourage a peaceful settlement between the Greek majority and Ottoman Turkish minority.
Critics say the step has been counterproductive by forcing Cyprus to seek other partners while Turkey, a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
member, has stationed forces in northern Cyprus since its invasion in 1974.
Democratic Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Republican Senator Marco Rubio
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida...
of Florida spearheaded the effort, saying they also wanted to encourage growing cooperation between Cyprus, Greece and Israel.
Move Incirlick's NATO forces to Cyprus
"With Cyprus seeking to deepen its strategic partnership with the United States, it is in our national security and economic interest to lift this outdated decades-long arms restrictions that are no longer helping US security objectives," Menendez said after initial approval of the lifting of the embargo.
While the two Cypriot communities have made progress in improving relations, tensions have spiked over an accord between Turkey and Libya for newly discovered gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean, undercutting claims by Greece and the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus.
US officials have been concerned that the ban has brought EU member Cyprus closer to Russia, with the island in 2015 signing off on an access deal to its ports.
Under the new act, the United States will still restrict certain sensitive technologies to Cyprus unless the US certifies that the island is denying Russia military vessels port access for refueling and servicing.
In a standoff in 1997, Turkey threatened an attack on Cyprus if it went ahead with installing the advanced S-300 missile defense system from Russia.
Someone left the irony on...
The controversy is now a relic of another time, with Turkey facing the threat of sanctions for buying the S-400 system from Russia despite its NATO membership.
Representatives of Turkey and the self-styled Ottoman Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus had lobbied against the lifting of the embargo, arguing that Congress was giving the green light to an arms race.
Turkey invaded in 1974 in response to a coup engineered by the then military regime in Athens that aimed to unite Cyprus with Greece. 
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Posted by trailing wife 2019-12-18 00:41||
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