By Bosphorus News Geopolitics Desk
The Republic of Cyprus, Greece and Jordan have renewed their trilateral defense program with unmanned systems among the operational files, while Türkiye moves the PKK process from parliament into nationwide administrative coordination. Hakan Fidan's Libya visit turns toward Benghazi as attacks spread across Zawiya's energy infrastructure, and Mahmoud Abbas is in Ankara for talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan later Wednesday.
Cyprus / Defense
Republic of Cyprus, Greece and Jordan renew defense plan with unmanned-systems focus
The Republic of Cyprus National Guard and the armed forces of Greece and Jordan have renewed their trilateral defense cooperation program for 2026, extending a framework that includes training, exercises, information exchange and operational experience. The program was signed at National Guard headquarters in Nicosia on August 6 and continues the corresponding 2025 arrangement.
The new program includes the exchange of operational lessons and best practices for dealing with unmanned systems, alongside cooperation in aerial firefighting. The provision gives the three-country framework a more practical counter-drone dimension as unmanned platforms become increasingly prominent around military and civilian infrastructure across the region.
Türkiye / Security
81 governors called to Ankara as PKK process enters provincial coordination
Grand National Assembly Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş and Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi are due to meet governors from all 81 provinces at 15:00 on Wednesday for a coordination meeting on the government's "Terror-Free Türkiye" process. Provincial monitoring, social integration and rehabilitation, public order and measures against possible provocation and disinformation are among the issues on the agenda. Both Kurtulmuş and Çiftçi's current offices were confirmed through their institutions before publication.
The meeting opens an administrative track after parliament approved the Law on Strengthening National Solidarity and Social Cohesion on August 10 by 468 votes to 88, with six abstentions. The law's conditional provisions do not take effect with passage alone: security institutions must first verify that the PKK/KCK and affiliated structures have ended their activities and surrendered their weapons, followed by National Security Council confirmation published in the Official Gazette, as Bosphorus News detailed before the final vote.
Parliament has meanwhile entered recess and is scheduled to reconvene on October 1 at 14:00, under a decision published in the Official Gazette on August 12.
Diplomacy
Abbas in Ankara for talks with Erdoğan
President of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Ankara on Tuesday for a two-day official visit and is scheduled to meet Erdoğan on Wednesday. Turkish and Palestinian accounts say the talks will cover developments in Palestine, bilateral relations and regional issues.
The visit puts the Palestinian file back on Erdoğan's agenda five days after Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, at a time when Ankara is widening high-level contacts around the regional security and diplomatic agenda.
Libya
Fidan's Libya visit turns toward Benghazi as attacks hit energy infrastructure
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan began a two-day Libya visit in Tripoli on Tuesday, meeting Government of National Unity Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah before a planned second-day program in Benghazi. Turkish diplomatic sources said Fidan would hold talks in both cities, with political relations, trade, energy, military and defense cooperation among the subjects under discussion. As of early Wednesday, Türkiye's Foreign Ministry had published the Tripoli meeting but no Benghazi readout.
The visit coincides with attacks on both sides of Libya's political divide. A car bomb killed Maj. Gen. Fawzy al-Mansouri, head of military intelligence for Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army, in Benghazi on Monday. In western Libya, explosive-laden drones struck fuel infrastructure around Zawiya, setting storage tanks ablaze and prompting the National Oil Corporation to warn that continued attacks could force a declaration of force majeure. The fires were subsequently brought under control, and engineers told Reuters that the refinery itself had not been damaged.
The pressure widened beyond oil infrastructure early Wednesday when another attack hit the South Zawiya electricity substation, causing a major outage. Ankara has been expanding its contacts with eastern Libya while maintaining its longstanding relationship with the Tripoli-based government; Fidan met Libyan National Army Deputy Commander Gen. Saddam Haftar in Ankara on July 24.
Black Sea Security
Romania destroys two drones near Neptun Deep gas project
Romanian army divers destroyed two unidentified Gerbera-type drones drifting in Romania's Black Sea exclusive economic zone near the Neptun Deep offshore gas project after they were detected by a civilian vessel. Defense Minister Radu Miruță did not identify their origin, while Ukraine told Romanian authorities that the systems were not Ukrainian.
The incident occurred only weeks after Türkiye, Romania and Bulgaria expanded their joint Black Sea mine-countermeasures mechanism to include protection of critical infrastructure. The shift was reported by Bosphorus News in July, with offshore energy installations among the assets exposed to the widened threat environment.
Black Sea Energy
Vance presses Kyiv over attacks on CPC-linked shipping
U.S. Vice President JD Vance asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop attacks on oil tankers using Russia's Novorossiysk port for Caspian Pipeline Consortium exports, the Financial Times reported. According to the FT, Kyiv halted strikes on non-Russian vessels and CPC infrastructure after a July 31 call, unless the ships were carrying Russian cargo or were subject to Ukrainian sanctions.
The request was driven partly by concern over global oil supply and U.S. commercial interests. CPC carries Kazakh crude through the Black Sea, while Chevron and ExxonMobil have substantial exposure to the system and the Kazakh production feeding it. Washington's intervention therefore places limits on one category of Ukrainian Black Sea strikes without requiring Kyiv to stop attacks on Russian energy infrastructure elsewhere.
Energy & Infrastructure
U.S. lawmakers push Great Sea Interconnector into IMEC agenda
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers led by Representatives Brad Schneider and Gus Bilirakis has asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. International Development Finance Corporation CEO Ben Black to prioritize the Great Sea Interconnector, the planned electricity link between Greece, the Republic of Cyprus and Israel.
The lawmakers tied GSI directly to the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor and requested a classified briefing on geopolitical obstacles to the project's completion. The initiative comes from Congress rather than the U.S. administration, but it puts the interconnector explicitly inside the Washington debate over IMEC and Eastern Mediterranean infrastructure.
Cyprus gas studies move into implementation with Egypt
Egypt and ExxonMobil have begun the first implementation work under a memorandum with QatarEnergy to study connecting the Glaucus and Pegasus discoveries in the Republic of Cyprus's Block 10 to Egyptian gas infrastructure. An August 6 meeting in New Alamein agreed to launch technical committees and develop technical, commercial and regulatory study programs for the proposed connection.
The work follows the commerciality declaration for Glaucus and Pegasus covered by Bosphorus News in July. It does not yet amount to a final export-route decision, but it keeps Egyptian processing and liquefaction infrastructure at the center of development planning for the discoveries, alongside the more advanced Cronos project.
Maritime Security
Fatal Red Sea attack hits shipping as Hormuz traffic falls to six vessels
Four crew members aboard the Egyptian-owned Tihamah and two Yemeni rescuers were killed after a Houthi attack near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, according to authorities cited by Reuters. It was the first Houthi commercial-shipping attack with confirmed fatalities since the Iran war began in February. In a separate incident, U.S. forces disabled the Panama-flagged Vela Nova in the Gulf of Oman after Washington said the vessel attempted to breach the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports.
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell to six vessels on Monday, compared with a 10-day average of about 11 and pre-war traffic of roughly 130 to 140 ships a day. The decline came as prospects for a U.S.-Iran agreement weakened and the dispute over conditions for reopening the waterway continued.
Strategic Take
Romanian divers have destroyed drones beside Neptun Deep, Zawiya's oil and electricity infrastructure has been hit repeatedly, and the Republic of Cyprus-Greece-Jordan defense program now includes exchanges on dealing with unmanned systems. Low-cost aerial systems are increasingly reaching the same energy and transport assets that regional governments are spending more resources to protect.
The infrastructure competition is developing on a second track. U.S. lawmakers are pressing Washington to treat the Great Sea Interconnector as part of IMEC, while Egypt, ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy are studying how Republic of Cyprus gas could reach Egyptian processing and LNG facilities. Kathimerini reported separately that Athens is reassessing parts of its Middle East strategy after the Mecca defense agreement, with IMEC's prospects and growing support for the Middle Corridor among the concerns being discussed in Greek policy circles.
Inside Türkiye, parliament has completed the first legislative step on PKK disarmament, but the operative legal measures still depend on verified dissolution and disarmament followed by a National Security Council decision. Wednesday's meeting with all 81 governors adds a nationwide administrative layer before that verification threshold has been crossed.
Fidan's planned Benghazi program comes as Ankara continues opening channels to eastern Libya without abandoning its established relationship with Tripoli. The timing gives those contacts additional weight: a senior eastern intelligence officer has been assassinated, while repeated strikes in the west have moved from fuel storage to the electricity network.
Sources: Hellenic National Defense General Staff, Türkiye's Interior Ministry, Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, WAFA, Türkiye's Foreign Ministry, U.S. House of Representatives, Egypt's Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Reuters, Associated Press, Financial Times, Kathimerini, Bosphorus News review and reporting.
Read Yesterday's brief: Eastern Mediterranean Strategic Brief | August 11, 2026.