Cyprus Ready to Start Emergency Evacuation Plan From Lebanon
(Bloomberg) -- Cyprus has received requests from more than 10 nations to help with an emergency evacuation of their citizens from Lebanon if the conflict in the Middle East escalates, according to the country’s president.
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The eastern Mediterranean nation and European Union member — which is about 25 minutes by air from Lebanon — stands ready to trigger such an evacuation plan, Nikos Christodoulides said Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. He said some countries had already moved diplomatic staff to Cyprus and cited the country’s previous experience in taking in people fleeing the Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.
“We have excellent relations with all interested parties” in the region, Christodoulides said, adding that Cyprus is seen as “an honest broker.”
Cyprus is already dealing with an increase in the number of refugees arriving on the island.
It has also faced threats from militant group Hezbollah, which has pledged to punish the government in Nicosia if it provides support to Israel’s war effort.
The country would be considered “part of the war” if Israel used Cypriot airports and bases in an attack on Lebanon, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said in June.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month accused Israel of using Cyprus as a base in its war against Hamas, warning of the risk of a wider war.
Christodoulides said Wednesday that such rhetoric is not helpful and “creates more problems.”
“What we need to concentrate on is how we resume the negotiations for the solution of the Palestinian issue,” he added. “It’s the only way to solve the problem in the region.”
Christodoulides said this month he had accepted an invitation to a United Nations-brokered gathering in New York next Tuesday that will attempt to restart talks on reunification of the island, which has been effectively divided for more than six decades.
Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar rejected the proposed meeting, saying in a written statement that “there is no common ground for the resumption of negotiations on the Cyprus issue” and “no need to meet in a tripartite or any other format.”
Cyprus reunification on the basis of a bi-zonal federation is “of course possible,” Christodoulides told Bloomberg TV. “The status quo in Cyprus of the last 50 years is not an option for us. It can’t be the future for Cyprus and we’ll do whatever is necessary to resume substantial negotiations to reach a settlement.”
An island less than half the size of New Jersey, Cyprus was split in 1963 when fighting erupted between its two main Greek and Turkish-speaking ethnic groups.
It was fully divided in 1974 after Turkey captured the northern third of the island with the aim of protecting minority Turkish Cypriots. That followed an Athens-backed coup by supporters of union of the whole island with Greece, then ruled by a military junta.
The capital Nicosia is Europe’s only divided city while a UN-patrolled buffer zone runs across the island separating the two sides.
Numerous UN-led efforts have failed over the decades to reunify the eastern Mediterranean nation on the basis of a bi-zonal federation.
“I see a win-win situation from the resumption of the talks and the solution of the Cyprus problem together with Turkey coming closer to the European Union,” Christodoulides said.
The most recent reunification attempt came in 2017, when officials from Turkey, Greece and the UK — guarantor powers under an agreement that ended British colonial rule in Cyprus — joined the Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot leaders in Switzerland for talks.
Cyprus, Greece and the UK continue to support a solution based on a bi-zonal federation, while Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot administration favor the creation of two separate states.
It’s not “on the table,” Christodoulides said regarding Turkey’s position. “No other option is possible for solution of the Cyprus problem.”
--With assistance from Anna Edwards, Kriti Gupta and Guy Johnson.
(Updates with comments on reunification starting in 10th paragraph)
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