Editor’s note: A portion of this article appears in CNN’s “Meanwhile in the Middle East” newsletter, which covers the biggest stories from the region three times a week. Sign up here.
CNN
—
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah singled out neighboring Cyprus in a fiery speech this week, warning that he would target the tiny divided Mediterranean island if it supported Israel in a possible war between Lebanese militants and Israel.
“If Cyprus opens its airports and bases to Israeli forces, Cyprus will also join this war,” the leader of the Iran-backed militant group said in a televised address on Wednesday, a day after Israel warned that a possible “all-out war” in Lebanon was “coming very close.”
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides responded by denying any involvement in the war.
“These remarks are unpleasant, but they are in no way in line with any attempt to create the impression that Cyprus is involved in war operations – not at all,” he said, adding that communications between the Lebanese and Iranian governments were open.
The European Union defended Cyprus on Thursday, saying the island is “an EU member state, therefore the EU is Cyprus and Cyprus is the EU.”
“Any threat to an EU member state is a threat to the EU,” EU spokesman Peter Stano told reporters.
Neighbouring Greece also voiced its “unwavering solidarity” with Cyprus and said the “threat of use of force is a clear violation of the UN Charter.”
In an apparent attempt at damage control, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdalla Bou Habib called his Cypriot counterpart Constantine Kombos and said Lebanon “remains dependent on the positive role Cyprus plays in supporting regional stability,” according to Lebanese state media.
While experts say war between Israel and Hezbollah remains unlikely, the mere mention of Cyprus adds a new dimension to the Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza, risks drawing EU member states into a war that is already spreading across the Middle East, and puts the spotlight on Cypriot-Israeli relations.
Here’s what we know:
Cyprus is an eastern Mediterranean island that sits on the geopolitical fault line between the Middle East and southern Europe, placing it geographically much closer to the Middle Eastern conflict than European spheres of influence.
The island, twice the size of the US state of Delaware, is divided into two regions: the Greek-speaking south is known as the Republic of Cyprus, and the Turkish-speaking south is known as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The island’s division reflects the rivalry between regional enemies Greece and Turkey. Most of the international community recognises the sovereignty of only the Greek part of Cyprus, and Nasrallah’s threats were directed at the Greek part.
The Republic of Cyprus is a member of the EU, but is not a member of the NATO defense alliance, which requires member states to defend each other in the event of an attack. It has a population of about 920,000 and its capital is Nicosia.
View this interactive content on CNN.com
Diplomatic relations between Cyprus and Israel began in 1960, when the island gained independence from British colonial rule, but Cyprus only opened an embassy in Tel Aviv in 1994. Relations deteriorated in the 1980s and 1990s due to issues such as Israel’s close ties with Turkey and the Arab-Israeli conflict, in which Cyprus sided with Arab countries in supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Relations between the two countries improved in the late 1990s and 2000s, and Israel began looking to the eastern Mediterranean for economic partnerships, especially after the discovery of natural gas in the region. Experts say Israel also looks to Cyprus as a partner to deter regional threats, especially from groups with ties to Turkey and Iran.
Israel has used Cypriot territory in recent years to train its military in preparation for war with Hezbollah, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have said Cyprus’ terrain is similar to that of Lebanon, according to Israeli media.
In 2022, the IDF conducted joint military exercises with the Cypriot military. According to Israeli media, some of the joint training focused on fighting on multiple fronts and against Hezbollah in Lebanon. The most recent exercises were held in Cyprus in May 2023.
The Cypriot presidency said Thursday that the country “has never encouraged and will not encourage any acts of aggression or aggression against any country.”
Stavros Ioannides/PIO/Reuters
Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantine Kombos received his Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen in Larnaca, Cyprus on December 20.
Cyprus has been keen to dispel any allegations of its involvement in the Gaza war, pointing to the humanitarian efforts it has helped bring aid to Gaza.
“The Republic of Cyprus is not part of the problem. The Republic of Cyprus is part of the solution,” President Christodoulides said, “and our role, demonstrated through things like humanitarian corridors, is recognized not only in the Arab world but throughout the international community.”
Cyprus began allowing aid ships to depart from its ports in March as part of an international effort to establish a humanitarian sea route to Gaza.
The first sea shipment to Gaza contained 200 tonnes of food, enough for around 500,000 meals. An EU logistics hub has also been established in Cyprus to facilitate the flow of aid to Gaza.
Nicosia has criticized some of Israel’s actions in Gaza, particularly those that hinder the delivery of humanitarian aid.
In April, it issued a joint statement with the UAE condemning the Israeli attack on the charity World Central Kitchen, which killed seven people.
He has also repeatedly condemned Hamas for the October 7 attack on Israel.
Yannis Kurtoglou/Reuters
Humanitarian aid for Gaza is loaded onto a platform next to a rescue ship belonging to the Spanish NGO Open Arms at the port of Larnaca, Cyprus, on March 11.
The island has been under fire before in regional conflicts and is a reminder of its proximity to the volatile Middle East. In 2019, a suspected Russian-made missile exploded in northern Cyprus. Cypriot authorities said the missile was linked to military operations in Syria and landed less than 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of the capital, Nicosia.
A scenario in which Israel uses its Cyprus base as a base for military forces, as Hezbollah has warned, would “de facto expand the Gaza war to the European Union,” Mohammad Ali Shabani, an Iranian analyst and editor of Amwaj Media, wrote for X.
This marks the first time an EU member state has become directly involved in the escalating Gaza war.
But some experts say the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is unlikely to escalate into all-out war, as neither side wants that to happen.
“Hezbollah’s release of drone footage of its sensitive sites inside Israel is intended to act as a deterrent against Israel,” Lina Khatib, an associate fellow at the Middle East and North Africa program at the London-based think tank Chatham House, told CNN, referring to nine minutes of drone footage released by Hezbollah on Tuesday showing civilian and military sites in and around the Israeli city of Haifa.
“It is normal for both Israel and Hezbollah to prepare military plans to deal with potential escalations of tensions. But as things stand, neither Israel nor Hezbollah benefits from an all-out war,” Khatib said, adding that “Hezbollah knows that a war with Israel would be devastating for Lebanon and no one in the country wants such a scenario.”
A Biden administration is unlikely to force Israel to fight a two-front war alone, she said, adding that U.S. involvement could involve “other Iranian-backed forces and potentially Iran itself as a target.”
“This is a big price Iran wants to avoid,” she said. “The United States also doesn’t want to get mired in another Middle East quagmire, especially with a presidential election looming.”
