Military presence increases in eastern Mediterranean
Regional crises and economic squabbles have led to a military buildup in the eastern Mediterranean that threatens to shift from feints and preparation to armed conflict as Russian and NATO forces further complicate the situation.
Recent moves by combat naval units in the international waters of the eastern Mediterranean Sea have conspicuously burgeoned, suggesting that the region is heating up. There are both regional and nonregional factors contributing to this worrisome trend.
The nonregional factor is the spilling over of the naval rivalry between Russia and NATO from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean in recent months.
As for the regional factors, the first is the Syrian crisis. Particularly since the beginning of US air attacks on Syria, many countries, notably Russia, have stepped up their reconnaissance and surveillance operations in the eastern Mediterranean usually described as “the gate of Middle East to Syria and the Mediterranean.”
Another cause of the increasing tension is the region's importance as a strategic junction of world trade. The inevitable naval presence in the region is to ensure the uninterrupted flow of free trade that sees 2,000 ships sailing in the region at any given moment and an annual traffic volume of 200,000 ships.
