President Ersin Tatar on Friday said that the most feasible option for transporting natural gas from the Eastern Mediterranean to Europe was through Turkey via Cyprus.

Evaluating the US’s silent withdrawal from the EastMed pipeline project in an interview with Turkish state television TRT,Tatar said that the project was economically doomed from the beginning.

“It was almost certain from the beginning that the project was not feasible economically. It was a political move which aimed to create the perception that the natural gas could be transported via an alternative route to that of Turkey,” he said.

Tatar pointed out that Turkey’s close proximity to Cyprus, a mere 40km, provided the most feasible option to transport the region’s natural gas to European markets.

“This is the most practical and feasible method. This is the only way to go. This reality has been revealed,” he said.

Referring to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s latest remarks concerning the EU, President Ersin Tatar said that the EU needed to understand that the Turkish Cypriot people had sovereign rights and that the bloc needed to take into account that Turkey, as a guarantor country, has rights over the island.

“As a result, the EU must listen to what the Turkish Cypriot people have to say if it truly wants to contribute to a just and lasting settlement in Cyprus,” he said, adding that the Turkish Cypriot side’s positions needed to receive acceptance in order for the right balances to be established in the Eastern Mediterranean.