Why didn’t the ancient Greeks establish colonies on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean?

The eastern coast of the Mediterranean was already occupied by the Phoenicians, who also established colonies. In these areas, the Greek colonists met with strong resistance from the Phoenician merchants and the powerful Assyrian, New Babylonian kings and Egyptian pharaohs behind them. Therefore, only a few settlements were founded on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, which, moreover, played the role of trading posts subordinated to local rulers.