Cyprus was taken as a miracle when Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah discussed Cyprus in his speech on 19 June, declaring that if Israel destroyed Cyprus’s air bases and bases in an attack on Lebanon. Given this, Cyprus can be considered a “party to the war”.
“The Cypriot government must be cautious,” he said.
For many the announcement was a shock.
In line with Nasrallah’s response, President Nicos Christodoulides instructed newshounds: “Cyprus is in no way involved in military conflicts.”
“I don’t understand it,” said Angelina Pliaka, a lawyer in the capital, Nicosia. “We have no involvement, and we do not support Israel.”
place of cyprus
Fears of war between Israel and Hezbollah have risen during Israel’s devastating eight-month war on Gaza as the Lebanese group exchanged fire with Israel to divert Israeli resources from its Gaza campaign.
Analysts have long warned that a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah would engulf international locations and gamers in the region.
But despite rising region-wide tensions following a Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, Hezbollah indirectly threatened Cyprus, which has similar ties with Israel but has signed a deal for aid deliveries to Gaza. Has also worked as a platform.
Nasrallah’s warning highlighted Nicosia’s position as the United States’ best friend and member of the ECU union in the field of Hezbollah’s missiles, as well as as a country where many people seek safe haven from inside. The desperate are worried about the country’s arrival. Reach battlefields.
Harry Tzimitras, director of the Wecke Analysis Institute Oslo (PRIO) Cyprus Centre, told Al Jazeera that Hezbollah’s warning “is a stark reminder to the people of Cyprus of where the country stands and how easily situations can be derailed.” .
Cyprus, known more for its beaches than proximity to battlefields, has the easternmost position in the EU and is just 160 km (100 mi) off the coast of Lebanon.
Recently, it has sought to give importance to that space to behave as the EU’s bridge in the Heart East, developing similar relations with Israel and Egypt while maintaining channels of communication with Iran.
“Cyprus has been very close to Israel since 2010-11,” Tzimitras said.
“In particular, Netanyahu governments are taking advantage of Cyprus becoming a close ally in political, financial, energy and military terms, as well as a friendly country in its relations with the EU.”
Despite those ties, Cyprus has attempted to distance itself from the conflicts in Gaza and on the Israel–Lebanon border.
Christodoulides, pointing to the humanitarian hall, declared: “Our country is in no way involved in this, and is not part of the problem.”
EU status under alert
James Kerr-Lindsay, a research assistant at the London School of Economics and an adviser on Cyprus and the Japanese Mediterranean, said the Cypriot government was “caught off guard”.
“The big thing is that Hezbollah is making threats against an EU member state. “There will be discussions in Europe about how to respond and calls on Iran to de-escalate.”
In his June 19 statement, Nasrallah pointed out that Israeli forces had conducted exercises in Cyprus two years earlier to simulate an invasion of Lebanon because the island’s mountainous terrain resembles southern Lebanon.
In a recent statement about the exercises taking place in 2022, he declined to mention those exercises.
Jack Watling, senior research fellow in land conflicts at the Royal United Services and Products Institute (RUSI), said Hezbollah’s warning related to British bases in Cyprus more than anything else.
Cyprus was a British colony until 1960, and when it gained self-determination, Britain maintained two huge military bases there.
They were essential in the exodus of British voters from Lebanon during Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah in 2006.
Its air operations operated RAF Akrotiri, one of the key bases during the invasions of Iraq in 2003 and Libya in 2011, as well as air operations against ISIL (ISIS) in Iraq in 2014.
In January, the RAF moved towards the Houthis in Yemen with the aim of discouraging mobs from attacking ships they perceived as belonging to Israel.
Investigative media outlet Declassified UK reported in May that Britain’s military had dispatched 60 flights to Israel since it began bombing Gaza in October, mostly from Akrotiri.
The Defense Ministry in London has declined to say what the fliers were wearing.
The declassified UK also said that the ground was being secretly prepared by the United States for sending guns to Israel.
The British government has also refused to say whether its Cyprus bases are becoming obsolete to facilitate the bombing of Gaza, or whether Israeli warplanes have landed there.
On the other hand, for Hezbollah, Watling said, the United Kingdom bases are essentially the most important strategic threat emanating from Cyprus.
“I would interpret (Nasrallah’s statement) as saying that Hezbollah is trying to encourage Britain and the US not to increase pressure on Israel,” he said.
“Given that Hezbollah has ballistic missiles, this is a potential threat.”
refugee question
This is not the only geopolitical headache Cyprus is dealing with.
In the wake of the war over Ukraine, Cyprus has severed its traditionally warm ties with Russia and tightened its grip on the West.
But this change may come at a price – because troop increases are not the only way Hezbollah can threaten Cyprus.
Located just a few hours by boat from war-torn Syria, the island has a perfect ratio of asylum seekers to people within the EU.
In May, Nasrallah called on the Lebanese government to “open the seas” to allow the Syrians to pursue their strategy for Cyprus.
“Cyprus was preparing for the possibility of a Lebanese migrant wave if the situation in Lebanon worsened. “Twice before this we have seen significant migration from Lebanon,” Tzimitras said.
“If it’s the way things are now with migration to the island, it will be extremely important to host more people.”
Nicoletta Georgiadou, a lawyer based solely in Nicosia, said unequivocally that the Cypriot people are less interested in a military increase towards their island than in the arrival of refugees.
He said, “If this threat becomes real, it will not be through war, but rather they will flood Cyprus with Syrian and Lebanese refugees.”
Discover more from news2source
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
