UPDATE - Washington not to support pipelines in Eastern Mediterranean, US official tells Greek daily

UPDATES WITH NULAND'S REMARKS ON TURKIYE’S MEDIATION EFFORTS, TURKIYE-US RELATIONS; ADDS MORE DETAILS

By Ahmet Gencturk

ANKARA (AA) - The US would not support any pipeline project in the Eastern Mediterranean, the country’s undersecretary of state said on Thursday.

“We don’t need to wait for 10 years and spend billions of dollars on this stuff. We need to move the gas now,” Victoria Nuland told the Greek daily Kathimerini.

“So we’ve got to use LNG and we’ve got to use electricity connections that we can do more quickly,” she told the daily and called for the transfer of natural gas from the Eastern Mediterranean to Europe via LNG and the participation of Turkiye in cooperation with Greece, Israel, Egypt and Cyprus in a wider context, according to the Greek news outlet.

So, we see real opportunities for energy to be a connecting factor in this part of the world,” she said.

- Turkiye’s mediation efforts

Nuland said that Turkiye has provided Ukraine with crucial and effective aid to Ukraine and praised the country’s ongoing mediation efforts between Russia and Ukraine to bring an immediate end to the war.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan maintains an effective relationship with both Russian and Ukrainian presidents and hence Turkiye was to be able to create a safe haven for diplomacy, “which is very important,” Vuland remarked.

“And if this war is to end, we need a diplomatic solution at the end of the day,” she added.

Turkiye has won widespread praise for its efforts to end the war, helped by its unique position in having friendly relations with both Russia and Ukraine.

On March 10, it hosted the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers in the southern resort city of Antalya, the highest-level meeting of the two sides since the war began on Feb. 24.

On March 29, Russian and Ukrainian delegations held face-to-face talks in Istanbul.

- Turkiye-US relations

Nuland also touched upon on her Monday’s visit to the Turkish capital Ankara.

It was a good opportunity to improve the relations between Turkiye and the US, both of which are NATO members, she added.

On Monday, Nuland visited the Turkish capital Ankara and met with Turkiye’s Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin and Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal.

Accordingly, it was announced in a joint statement that the Turkiye-US Strategic Mechanism was launched on April 4 to further expand the bilateral cooperation.