Tensions over the search for oil and natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean are growing as Cyprus begins offshore drilling.

After denouncing the project illegal, Turkey has sent a research ship to the site. The Turkish-backed leadership in northern Cyprus wants drilling to stop until a reunification deal is reached.

It is an idea Cyprus's internationally recognised government rejects. Along with the quest for mineral wealth under the sea, the diplomatic crisis goes on.

Al Jazeera's Nadim Baba reports from Nicosia, in Cyprus.