A State Department official on Tuesday urged Ankara to avoid statements and acts that increase tensions in the east Mediterranean, a dispatch by Greece's state-run news agency reported on Wednesday morning.
The report, without naming the official, comes amid more saber-rattling by the Turkish government to prevent hydrocarbon exploration in the Republic of Cyprus' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
The statement comes after a question regarding a Turkish survey vessel, the "Barbaros", in Block 4 of Cyprus' EEZ, accompanied by four Turkish naval vessels.
The US official merely added that Washington believes oil and gas resources should be shared by the two communities on the island, part of a settlement to end the division on Cyprus.
