drones and two ballistic missiles<\/a> fired in the direction of Cyprus were intercepted, said Cypriot and British authorities.<\/p>\nThe US embassy in Nicosia advised staff: \u201cIf you hear a loud explosion, or if sirens are activated, immediately seek cover \u2026 Be aware that even if the incoming missile or drone is intercepted, falling debris represents a significant risk\u201d.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s long-range missiles could reach also Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania, while the Iran-controlled Hezbollah militia in Lebanon could fire at Cyprus.<\/p>\n
But the fact Iran has not fired at neighbouring Nato power Turkey indicates it might still be seeking to de-escalate violence, using Turkish mediation, instead of lashing out at any Western targets it can reach.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Cyprus is not a Nato member, but is covered by an EU-treaty joint defence clause, which has not yet been discussed, the EU Commission said on Monday.<\/p>\n
The British base is also technically a \u2018British Overseas Territory\u2019, meaning it is neither Cyprus nor UK (and Nato) territory, legally speaking.<\/p>\n
And both Christodoulides and British prime minister Keir Starmer downplayed the Iranian salvo on Monday, saying the projectiles had not been targeted at Cypriot population centres, as with Iranian attacks against Israel and Gulf Arab states.<\/p>\n
Christodoulides and Starmer also said they were not at war with Iran, while the EU called for \u201cmaximum restraint\u201d by the US and Israel as well as Iran in its bid to stay neutral.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur country does not participate in any way and does not intend to be part of any military operation,\u201d Christodoulides said.<\/p>\n
Nato has stayed silent on the Cyprus attack, but its secretary general, Mark Rutte, has praised US president Donald Trump\u2019s decision to kill Iranian leader ayatollah Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n
Return flights<\/p>\n
Cyprus, the UK, and other EU countries, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Germany, are organising flights to try to bring back home thousands of travellers stranded in travel hubs, such as the UAE, as well as further afield, due to flight cancellations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will send aircraft to Riyadh and Muscat as quickly as possible for particularly vulnerable groups,\u201d said German foreign minister Johann Wadephul.<\/p>\n
Some 102,000 British nationals had registered concern with consular authorities in the Middle East, the British foreign office said, while the Irish foreign ministry estimated some 20,000 of its nationals were stuck in the conflict zone, with no clear way out. <\/p>\n
The Dutch foreign ministry said it will not repatriate Dutch citizens from Middle Eastern countries for the time being, as it was not safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe airspace is closed. Iyou want to bring people home, you want to do it safely. At the moment, those options aren\u2019t available,\u201d said Dutch foreign minister Tom Berendsen.<\/p>\n
Missile strikes have also hit at least three Emirati tankers in the Gulf, while most global shipping lines have decided to avoid the area, adding to global trade and energy disruption.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur naval mission, Aspides, has seen a sharp rise in protection requests, and we will reinforce it with additional ships,\u201d an EU Commission spokesman said on Monday, referring to an existing EU naval operation in the region.<\/p>\n
Lone Spanish voice<\/p>\n
For his part, German chancellor Friedrich Merz has tried to avoid clashing with Trump over Iran <\/a>ahead of his visit to Washington on Monday, amid already fraying transatlantic relations. <\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019re not going to be lecturing our partners on their military strikes against Iran,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But Spain continued to to call out the illegality and recklessness of Trump\u2019s unilateral attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are facing a military escalation with unpredictable consequences, consequences that we are already seeing before our eyes: the Strait of Hormuz completely paralysed, the increase in the price of oil, and the spread of the war,\u201d said Spanish prime minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez on Monday.<\/p>\n
US aircraft also moved out of southern Spain after the Spanish government said its bases cannot be used for attacks on Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran has shown EU cities could be hit in the Middle East war, as tens of thousands of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[217083,2000,299,5187,231412,217281,221969,231410,221967,217279,231411,221968,217280],"class_list":{"0":"post-799604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-typedefinedterm","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-identifier4293","13":"tag-identifier4313","14":"tag-identifier4328","15":"tag-nameiran","16":"tag-nameisrael","17":"tag-nameus","18":"tag-termcodeiran","19":"tag-termcodeisrael","20":"tag-termcodeus"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116161193378807496","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}