Hezbollah has several concerns about Cyprus, analysts say, and can \u2018attack\u2019 it in more ways than one
\n Lebanon
\nHezbollah\u2019s threat to retaliate against Cyprus if it helps Israel attack Lebanon has highlighted the Mediterranean island\u2019s delicate geopolitical position, analysts say.
\nCypriots were taken by surprise when Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah mentioned them in a June 19 speech, saying Cyprus would be considered \u201cpart of the war\u201d if Israel used Cypriot airports and bases in an attack on Lebanon.
\n\u201cThe Cypriot government should be careful,\u201d he said.
\nFor many, the announcement was a shock.
\nPresident Nikos Christodoulides told reporters: \u201cCyprus is not involved, in any way, in the military conflicts,\u201d in response to Nasrallah\u2019s comments.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t understand it,\u201d said Angelina Pliaka, a lawyer in the capital Nicosia. \u201cWe have no involvement, and we don\u2019t support Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cyprus\u2019s position
\nThe prospect of war between Israel and Hezbollah has inched closer throughout Israel\u2019s devastating eight-month war on Gaza as the Lebanese group exchanged fire with Israel in a bid to divert Israel\u2019s resources from its Gaza campaign.
\nAnalysts have long warned that a full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah would drag in countries and players across the region.
\nYet despite rising region-wide tensions since a Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, Hezbollah had not directly threatened Cyprus, which has close ties to Israel but has also served as a staging post for aid deliveries into Gaza.
\nNasrallah\u2019s threat highlighted Nicosia\u2019s position as a United States ally and European Union member within range of Hezbollah\u2019s missiles, as well as a country where many are increasingly concerned about the arrival of desperate people seeking refuge from nearby warzones.
\nThe Hezbollah threat is \u201ca stark reminder to the people of Cyprus where the country is located and how easily situations can be derailed,\u201d Harry Tzimitras, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) Cyprus Centre, told Al Jazeera.
\nCyprus, known more for its beaches than its proximity to warzones, is the most easterly state in the EU and lies just 160km (100 miles) from the coast of Lebanon.
\nIn recent years, it has sought to use that position to act as the EU\u2019s bridge into the Middle East, building close ties with Israel and Egypt while maintaining channels of communication with Iran.
\n\u201cCyprus has been quite close to Israel since 2010-11,\u201d Tzimitras said.
\n\u201cIn particular, the Netanyahu governments have been capitalising on Cyprus becoming a close ally in political, financial, energy and military terms, as well as a friendly country, in their relations with the EU.\u201d
\nDespite these ties, Cyprus has tried to keep its distance from the conflicts in Gaza and on the Israel-Lebanon border.
\nChristodoulides had also pointed to the humanitarian corridor, saying: \u201cOur country is absolutely not involved in any way, and is not part of the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
An EU state under threat
\nThe Cypriot government was \u201ccaught off guard\u201d, James Ker-Lindsay, a research associate at the London School of Economics and a specialist on Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean, said.
\n\u201cThe big takeaway 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 dial it down.\u201d
\nIn his June 19 speech, Nasrallah pointed out that Israeli forces had conducted exercises \u2013 to simulate invading Lebanon \u2013 in Cyprus two years ago because the island\u2019s hilly terrain resembles southern Lebanon.
\nIn a speech shortly after those exercises in 2022, he made no mention of those drills.
\nHezbollah\u2019s threat \u201clikely relates\u201d more to the British bases in Cyprus than anything else, Jack Watling, senior research fellow for land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said.
\nCyprus was a British colony until 1960 and when it won its independence, the United Kingdom retained two sprawling military bases there.
\nThey were vital in an exodus of British citizens from Lebanon during Israel\u2019s war with Hezbollah in 2006.
\nIts air force used one of the bases, RAF Akrotiri, in the invasions of Iraq in 2003 and Libya in 2011, as well as in air strikes against ISIL (ISIS) in Iraq in 2014.
\nIn January, the RAF used the base to launch strikes against the Houthis in Yemen in an attempt to deter the group from attacking ships they deemed Israel-related.
\nInvestigative media outlet Declassified UK reported in May that Britain\u2019s military sent 60 flights to Israel since it began bombing Gaza in October, mostly from Akrotiri.
\nLondon\u2019s Ministry of Defence has refused to reveal what those flights were carrying.
\nDeclassified UK also said the base was secretly being used by the US to transport weapons to Israel.
\nThe British government has also refused to say whether its Cyprus bases are being used to facilitate bombing Gaza, or whether Israeli fighter jets have landed there.
\nHowever, for Hezbollah, Watling said, the UK bases are the most significant strategic threat emanating from Cyprus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hezbollah has several concerns about Cyprus, analysts say, and can \u2018attack\u2019 it in more ways than one Lebanon Hezbollah\u2019s threat to retaliate against Cyprus if it helps Israel attack Lebanon has highlighted the Mediterranean island\u2019s delicate geopolitical position, analysts say. Cypriots were taken by surprise when Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah mentioned them in a June […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-414594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n