Cyprus playing pivotal role in evacuation plans
Although Cyprus is not a NATO member, the presence of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s staff members in their national capacity is increasing as the island takes center stage in the evacuation operations of US and other Western civilians from Israel and Lebanon.
Kathimerini understands the staff members are stationed at the two sovereign bases of the United Kingdom in Cyprus, at Akrotiri and Dhekelia, an area that is considered to be the territory of a NATO member-state.
NATO staff are reportedly already creating an operations center to plan and coordinate civilian evacuation missions from Israel and Lebanon. These complex operations entail a combination of intensive real-time intelligence gathering missions, a task that is already being carried out by the various flying assets in the area (planes and unmanned aerial vehicles), as well as movements by the special forces already on the island.
In any case, the emergence of the usefulness of Cyprus for conducting operations to the benefit of NATO, even through the UK’s dominant bases, is a development which has not gone unnoticed in Washington.
At the same time, and while Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip intensify, Athens is clearly distancing itself from the way Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is handling the situation. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis clearly indicated that Greece wishes to maintain a very delicate balance, as Gaza is threatened with a humanitarian disaster of enormous proportions.
Speaking in Parliament, Mitsotakis noted that “Israel’s attack has escalated beyond the limits one would expect,” recalling that from the outset Athens had recognized the country’s right to self-defense after the horrific attacks by Hamas.
“But we said at the same time that the bar of respect for human rights was based on international law, we absolutely separated Hamas from the Palestinian people. We placed great emphasis on stopping military operations in order to support the civilians of Gaza,” Mitsotakis stressed.
