Cyprus president says 'my country is also in danger' from Iranian nuclear threat as he reaffirms alliance with Israel

Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides warned that an Iranian nuclear weapon would pose a direct threat to his country, just a short flight from Israel.

“If Iran acquires nuclear capabilities, my country is also in danger. We are 30 minutes from Israel," Christodoulides stated in an interview with the British podcast, "The Rest is Politics: Leading."

The Cypriot leader hailed Israel as “our closest ally in the region.”

He criticized the international community for displaying double standards against Israel. 

“Whenever we want to sell military weapons, we recognize these states… but at the same time, we are the first to criticize them. Why don’t we apply the same criticism to what Turkey is doing in Cyprus?” he said, referring to Turkey’s illegal occupation of Northern Cyprus since 1974. 

Christodoulides said, “International law is interpreted based on the power of the state interpreting it.”

Much of the worldwide community has often attributed chronic violence in the Middle East to Israel. Christodoulides, however, argued that the United Nations and other international organizations have not adequately addressed internal conflicts and instability in Arab and Muslim-majority states, which he said have also contributed to wider regional unrest.

“The failures of the region are because of the international community… because of the Arab Spring, which turned into an Arab Winter,” he argued, referring to the turmoil across the Middle East in 2010 that was unrelated to Israel and the limited conflict in Gaza, Judea and Samaria. 

The Cypriot leader highlighted the differences between the Middle East and the West, recounting a conversation between Jordanian officials and a Scandinavian minister regarding women’s and LGBTQ rights. 

“My neighbor is Iran, while your neighbor is Denmark,” the Jordanian officials explained at the time.

In June 2024, the now late Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, threatened to attack Cyprus because of its close ties with Israel.

“Opening Cypriot airports and bases to the Israeli enemy to target Lebanon would mean that the Cypriot government is part of the war, and the resistance will deal with it as part of the war,” Nasrallah warned. 

Christodoulides responded at the time by stressing that Cyprus “is in no way involved” in the war between Iran or its proxies and Israel. He also emphasized that Nasrallah’s claims “don’t in any way reflect what’s being attempted, which is to present a picture that Cyprus is involved in military operations.”

In recent years, Cyprus and Israel have forged close diplomatic, commercial, and security ties. The two countries have held multiple rounds of talks on a potential partnership to channel Israeli natural gas through Cyprus and onward to the wider European Union market. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, European states have signaled a stronger push to reduce their reliance on Russian energy and turn to alternative suppliers, including Israel.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, European countries have increasingly indicated that they seek to dramatically reduce their dependence on Russian energy by finding alternative energy suppliers such as Israel. 

In May, Christodoulides called for renewed gas talks with Israel during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. He presented the close Cypriot-Israeli ties within the wider context of establishing an energy corridor between India and Europe via the Middle East and the Mediterranean region. 

“Our priority is to connect India, the Middle East, and Europe,” Christodoulides explained. He also stressed the Cypriot government’s support for Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran and its proxies – Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. He added that cooperation and political dialogue would “enable us to face challenges together and to take advantage of what the region has to offer.”