With the Developments in the Middle East to be in a particularly fragile phaseNicosia is moving strongly in the background, attempting to play an active role in crisis management. The President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, today made successive telephone communications with key leaders in the area: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Egyptian President Abdel Fathak al -Sisi Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
The timing leaves no room for passive monitoring. Cyprus, with its geographical proximity to the fields of tension and with timeless communication channels with both the Arab countries and Israel, returns to the core of regional diplomacy.
According to government spokesman Konstantinos Letibiotis, President Christodoulides stressed to all his interlocutors the urgent need for immediate diligence of the crisis and to return to diplomatic road. Made special reference to Need to cease fire in Gazain the release of hostages and in unobstructed humanitarian aid flowwhich today encounters severe obstacles.
The intervention of Cyprus is neither neutral nor embarrassed. It’s a strategy. The Republic of Cyprus seeks to take advantage of its position as EU Member State with traditional relationships with all regional playersbuilding on her role as bridge Between the EU and the Eastern Mediterranean. Nicosia’s approach, combining realism and humanitarian sensitivity, gives the Cypriot voice gravity, while the capitals of the region are looking for reliable interlocutors.
The conversation with Kyriakos Mitsotakis is part of a common context of a Greek Cypriot approach to the Mediterranean in the Mediterranean, while contact with Benjamin Netanyahu shows Cyprus’s willingness to keep the channels open even with the most involved.