In June, Hassan Nasrallah, then leader of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia, openly threatened to attack the Republic of Cyprus after accusing it of opening its airport infrastructure to the Israeli air force to “target” the Lebanon.
However, although it actually maintains very good relations with Israel, Cyprus had never opened its military sites to the IDF. On the other hand, it had allowed the latter to use its airspace for exercises.
In any case, the Hezbollah threat did not provoke strong reactions within the European Union. [UE]of which Nicosia is a member. Thus, at the time, still high representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell had only declared that “Lebanon could count on our support, just like Cyprus”. The only firm comment came from Greece.
“Making threats against a sovereign EU state is absolutely unacceptable. We stand with Cyprus and we will all be together to face all kinds of global threats emanating from terrorist organizations,” declared the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The fact remains that this threat could only strengthen the desire of the Cypriot authorities to strengthen the air defense capabilities of their National Guard, which then relied almost exclusively on Russian-made Buk M1 and Tor M1 systems. In addition, in the past, Cyprus had ordered S-300 batteries from Moscow… which led to a crisis with Turkey. Finally, the objects of the dispute were taken over by Greece, which would now consider ceding them to Armenia.
What will be the reactions of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus? [RTCN] after the announcement of the delivery to Cyprus of Barak MX air defense systems by Israel Aerospace Industries?
Indeed, according to the Sigma TV television channel, deliveries of the first components of this system to the Cypriot National Guard began on December 3… although no official announcement concerning the order of the Barak MX had been made before. Furthermore, the Cypriot authorities did not want to make any comment on this information.
“The only thing I can say is that we will do and are doing everything necessary to strengthen Cyprus' deterrent force [en référence à RTCN, ndlr]not only because we are a country under occupation, but also because we are an EU member state in a region of particular geostrategic importance,” Nikos Christodoulides, the Cypriot president, told the press. this December 5.
However, a “high-ranking” Cypriot source told Reuters that the systems of Russian origin had to be replaced because they could not be maintained and modernized.
“That is why we are turning to other EU countries as well as Israel. In this context, efforts are underway to modernize our anti-aircraft shield,” she said, confirming half-heartedly the delivery of the Barak MX system, capable of intercepting aerial targets at distances ranging from 35 to 150 km.
Note that Greece plans to acquire an identical system, as part of the development of a multi-layer air defense capability. This should also be based on the “David’s Sling” and SPYDER MR systems, also offered by Israel.
Photo : IAI
