‘Cyprus was not targeted in any way because of geography’
Cyprus “was not targeted in any way because of geography”, Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said on Friday of the Iranian-made drone which hit the island earlier in the week, stressing that “it is a British base that has been targeted”.
During an appearance on British television channel Sky News, he was keen to stress that the government’s position is that the drone which hit the United Kingdom’s Akrotiri air force base in the early hours of Monday had been aimed squarely at it, and not at the Republic of Cyprus.
“Our profile as a country is very clear to everyone. We have never been involved in any military offensive operations against anyone. On the contrary, our role is to be facilitators at the humanitarian level,” he said.
To this end, he highlighted the government’s ‘Estia’ plan, wherein citizens of European Union and third countries are evacuated from crisis regions to their countries of origin via Cyprus.
“We have evacuated citizens from countries from all over the world, throughout the world. We have supported and facilitated them, helping the people move from dangerous zones,” he said, before turning his attention back to the British bases.
“As regards the UK, the UK has responsibilities in relation to its bases. We expressed, for sure, our views, our concerns, our questions, our dissatisfaction, however you want to call it,” he said.
He added that the Cypriot government has “a very active dialogue with the UK”, and that in recent days, that dialogue has taken place “at all levels, from the prime minister, my level, and the technical level, as well”.
“Right now, what matters is that we get through a crisis – a crisis that we must get through together,” he said.
He stressed that Cyprus has “the support of our European partners” and that the government is “working with the United Kingdom”.
“After this crisis ends, hopefully we will be able to reflect on these days in a very calm way and see what happened, what could have happened, and what could possibly be happening,” he said.
Earlier, he had said that he had “welcomed the deployment of assets from friendly countries in the European Union” to Cyprus following Monday’s drone strike, with Greece and France swiftly having deployed naval assets, and Spain and Italy having followed suit later in the week.
He also made reference to the UK’s planned deployment of the HMS DragonType 45 destroyer, and said that “we are waiting for them to be incorporated into the system”.
On this matter, he stressed that the British bases have their own “protective structure”, before moving to downplay the impact of Monday’s drone strike.
“We had the incident, without any real damage but without casualties,” he said, before once again stressing that in its aftermath, “we have tried to expand our capacity and make sure that we protect the people on the island, both Cypriot citizens and visitors”.
He then said that this is why the response from the likes of Greece and France is “extremely important to us”, and that this should complement the existence of British forces on the island.
“In terms of the British forces, it is of course something that is useful, but we are not going to be in any way trying to isolate the sources from which we draw this support. We are a member state of the European Union. Our partners have shown solidarity and we are moving in that direction, trying to ensure that the people remain safe,” he said.