A United States amphibious assault ship has docked in Cyprus as part of a pre-arranged visit, but could be used to support civilians if hostilities flare up in the Middle East, the US ambassador to Cyprus said Friday.
The USS Wasp arrived in Cyprus’s southern port of Limassol on August 8.
“The visit comes at a time when the United States continues all efforts along with key partners to de-escalate regional tensions and to be prepared to support civilians in crisis,” US Ambassador to Cyprus Julie Fisher said on X on Friday.
European Union member Cyprus has offered to assist, if needed, in the evacuation of Europeans and third-country nationals should tensions spill over in the Middle East amid a standoff between Israel, Iran and Iran-affiliated terror groups.
The eastern Mediterranean island says it is not involved in military operations or any conflict.
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“Humanitarian assistance is what we do,” said government spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis.
The Open Arms vessel which ferried food rations provided by aid group World Central Kitchen for the Gaza Strip, is docked in the port of Larnaca on the southern coast of Cyprus on April 3, 2024. (Etienne Torbey/AFP)
Iran has pledged to exact “harsh punishment” on Israel for the July 31 assassination in Tehran of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its role in the killing.
Israel is also awaiting a response from Hezbollah, whose top military commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut, hours before the blast that killed Haniyeh. Israel said Shukr was responsible for the July 27 missile attack that killed 12 children in the Golan Heights.
US officials have warned Iran that a large-scale attack on Israel could lead to an all-out war, 10 months after the war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, which killed nearly 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.
Throughout the war, Iran’s proxies have threatened Cyprus, which houses a British military base from which the US and United Kingdom have launched some airstrikes from against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
This photo issued by the UK Ministry of Defense on February 4, 2024 shows an RAF Typhoon FGR4 aircraft returning to base in Cyprus, following strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen. (CAS1 Jake Green/RAF via AP)
Hassan Nasrallah, head of Iran’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah, said in a July 19 speech that the island nation has been letting Israel use its airports and bases for military exercises and could therefore be targeted.
“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,” he said.
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