Mersin (Turkey) (AFP) - Turkey on Tuesday sent its newest drill ship on the first eastern Mediterranean energy exploration mission in nearly two years.

A Turkish ship sets off to drill for gas in the eastern Mediterranean – a move that risks inflaming regional tensions.

A series of diplomatic wins, capped by the deal to resume Ukraine's grain exports, provides some respite for President Tayyip Erdogan from Turkey's economic strife and offers a blueprint of his campaign strategy for elections due next year.

Two more ships, carrying corn and soybeans, departed from Ukrainian Black Sea ports on Monday, Turkey and Ukraine said, taking the total to ten since the first ship sailed last week under a deal with Russia to unblock Ukrainian grain exports.

A grain-carrying ship that was scheduled to depart from Ukraine's Chornomorsk port under a U.N.-brokered deal on Thursday was unable to set sail due to bad weather conditions, Turkey's defence ministry said.

A Lebanese buyer refused to accept a grain cargo from Ukraine, citing a delay in delivery terms, announced the Ukrainian Embassy in Beirut. The Razoni, the first ship to depart Ukraine under an UN-brokered deal, left the port of Odesa on the Black Sea in August, carrying 26,000 tons of…