Da Sarajevo a Nicosia...100 anni dopo

Il commento sulla crisi cipriota di Tony Barber sul Financial Times di oggi sottolinea la gravità delle implicazioni per l'Europa intera di una pessima miope gestione della situazione: ecco come conclude

But the latest crisis draws in Britain, Greece, Israel, the US and Turkey, not to mention Germany as the eurozone’s indispensable decision maker. Nearby a civil war rages in Syria and political turbulence disturbs Egypt and Iraq. Cyprus is not even immune to international tensions over Iran. The island’s economic emergency intensified in July 2011 when a cache of Iranian weapons, seized by the US navy and stored at a Cypriot base, exploded and knocked out half the island’s electricity supply. Incoming hours and days, much more will beat stake than the solvency of Cyprus’s banks or its eurozone membership. For example, any financial rescue tied to future revenues from Cyprus’s newly discovered gas reserves, tentatively valued at up to $80bn, will give rise to hotly contested claims tot he assets. Among the claimants would be the Turkish Cypriots, backed byTurkey, whose military presence in northern Cyprus serves as a permanent reminder of thei island’s political fragility. Such a dispute would suck in Greece, traditional patron of the Greek Cypriots, and Israel, their partner in energy development. The US, whose Sixth Fleet makes it the pre-eminent Mediterranean naval power,would be drawn in, and so would Britain with its two sovereign military bases in Cyprus. Preventing these entanglements from getting out of control will require supreme statesmanship from everyone involved. Perhaps the thought that next year marks the 100th anniversary of the shooting of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand will concentrate minds.

Mi auguro che abbia ragione...per parte mia sono scettico...non mi pare che ci sia in giro molta "supreme statesmanship"...