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Cyprus Says US Decree on Security Affirms Island's Stabilizing Role in Region

Nicosia, Cyprus | Photo: Getty Images
Nicosia, Cyprus | Photo: Getty Images
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Cyprus Says US Decree on Security Affirms Island's Stabilizing Role in Region

Nicosia, Cyprus | Photo: Getty Images
Nicosia, Cyprus | Photo: Getty Images

Cyprus on Thursday hailed a US memorandum allowing military sales, including arms, to the island as a milestone affirming recognition of the island as a pillar of stability in the east Mediterranean region which has been fraught with conflict.
US President Joe Biden boosted security ties with Cyprus on Wednesday by issuing a memorandum that makes the island eligible to receive American defense articles, military sales and training.
Cyprus has over the years played a key role in evacuating people out of conflict zones and established a maritime corridor for aid to war-ravaged Gaza last year.
"This (memorandum) is a clear recognition of the Republic of Cyprus as a pillar of stability and security in the Eastern Mediterranean, with the potential to further contribute to peace and the management of humanitarian challenges," the Cypriot presidency said in a statement.
Cyprus was close to Russia for decades, but there has been a marked shift in allegiances in recent years, Reuters said.
For many in Cyprus, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has drawn parallels to Türkiye’s invasion of Cyprus in 1974, and Cyprus, an EU member state, has followed its peers in adopting sanctions on Moscow. It is now getting FBI expertise in countering illicit finance.
Access to the US programs would enable greater interoperability to respond to regional humanitarian crises, counter malign influence, and combat terrorism and transnational organized crime, the US embassy in Nicosia said.
Deepening US-Cyprus relations are closely followed by Türkiye, which in September criticized the signing of a roadmap to boost defense co-operation between the United States and Cyprus.
Cyprus was split in a Turkish invasion following a brief Greek-inspired coup in 1974, following years of sporadic violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots which triggered the collapse of a power-sharing administration in 1963.

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Pezeshkian: Iran is Open for Dialogue with Trump, Never Plotted to Kill him

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in an NBC News interview on Tuesday
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in an NBC News interview on Tuesday
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Pezeshkian: Iran is Open for Dialogue with Trump, Never Plotted to Kill him

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in an NBC News interview on Tuesday
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in an NBC News interview on Tuesday

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned the US against the risk of a war against Iran, reaffirming that Tehran was not seeking to curb its nuclear program or acquire weapons of mass destruction.

In an NBC News interview on Tuesday, Pezeshkian said his country in principle is open to dialogue with the second administration of Republican US President-elect Donald Trump, adding that Iran never plotted to kill him.

Officials in Tehran fear that Trump will revive his maximum pressure strategy that sought to wreck Iran's economy to force the country to negotiate a deal on its nuclear program, ballistic missile program and regional activities.

Questions have been raised about Trump’s approach to Tehran, with both sides sending contradictory signals, complicating any prospects for meaningful dialogue.

Trump's position on nuclear talks held during the term of Biden remains unclear. The President-elect has pledged a more assertive approach and a closer alliance with Israel, which opposes the deal.

Pezeshkian’s interview came less than a week before Trump’s inauguration as the 47th American president.

“I hope that (President-elect Donald) Trump will lead to regional and world peace and will not, on the contrary, contribute to bloodshed or war,” he said.

The interview also comes as Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart will sign a 25-year strategic partnership agreement during the latter's visit to Russia on Jan. 17.

Indirect Talks

Pezeshkian said Iran in principle is open to dialogue with the second Trump administration. But he said that the United States has not lived up to its commitments in the past and that it has sought to topple the Iranian government.

“The problem we have is not in dialogue,” Pezeshkian said. “It’s in the commitments that arise from talk and dialogue that we’ll have to commit to.”

Mehdi Fazaeli, a senior figure in the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, described negotiating with the United States as “a betrayal of the entire world.”

In an article published in the Hamshahri newspaper, Fazaeli said negotiating with the United States “will greatly contribute to the revival of American dominance.”

Last week, the Supreme Leader firmly rejected direct talks with Washington and cautioned Iranian officials against pursuing better relations. “Our officials mustn't succumb to demands of US and Zionists who desire Iran's ruin,” he said.

Israeli Plot

In November, the US Justice Department charged an Iranian man in connection with an alleged plot ordered by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps to assassinate the US president-elect. Law enforcement thwarted the alleged plan before any attack was carried out.

Trump also said last year during the US election campaign that Iran may have been behind attempts to kill him.

“None whatsoever,” Pezeshkian said on NBC News when asked if there was an Iranian plan to kill Trump. “We have never attempted this to begin with and we never will.”

He added: “This is another one of those schemes that Israel and other countries are designing to promote Iranophobia.”

Nuclear Threshold

Over the past few years, Iran has significantly advanced its nuclear capabilities and is now considered to be at the threshold of developing nuclear weapons.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog, Iran has increased its manufacturing of enriched uranium such that it is the only non-nuclear weapons state to possess uranium enriched to 60 percent.

Iran says it has the right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and has consistently denied any ambition of developing weapons capability.

Pezeshkian defended his country’s policy, saying: “Everything we have done so far has been peaceful. We are not seeking to create a nuclear weapon. But they are accusing us of trying to make an atomic bomb.”

When asked about possible Israeli military strikes, with US approval, against his country's nuclear sites, the President said through a translator: “You see, naturally enough, we will react to any action. We do not fear war, but we do not seek it.”