The Foreign Ministers of Cyprus Republic and Israel, Constantinos Kombos and Gideon Sa’ar, spoke of the value of the trilateral meeting with Greece on Thursday, after they met in Athens with their counterpart George Gerapetritis.
On his side, Kombos unequivocally condemned Hamas’ terrorist attacks and said it should not have a role in the future of Gaza. He also condemned the heinous crimes in Syria against Christians, Alawites, and Druze. “The Syrian people have a right for support, but Syria cannot serve as a base for the export of extremism and as a source of instability in the region,” the Cypriot FM said.
Concerning the trilateral meeting, he said that Greece, Cyprus, and Israel have connected geographic advantages, while the southeast is the gateway to Europe in terms of energy.
Kombos also referred to the upcoming informal quintilateral meeting on the Cyprus issue on March 17-18, stressing that Cyprus will focus on a positive outcome relating to the restart of substantial negotiations. “We are attending with goodwill and a willingness for talks. It is up to the other side what its stance will be,” he underlined.
Israeli FM Sa’ar
Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar stressed that the relations among the three countries are based on strategic regional cooperation and on common values and interests.
The trilateral meeting provides the option of expanding strategic ties and promotes cooperation in several fields, while it aims at adding more items on the agenda, Sa’ar said. The three had agreed to monthly meetings to promote connectivity jointly and to set the items of the agenda that will be discussed at a summit meeting of the three countries’ leaders, he noted, while commenting on the October 2023 events that had radically changed the region. “With our friend Mr. Trump, we have an opportunity to fix things in the region,” he said.
Israel may not have mourned the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, but under the new Jolani regime “we saw that Christians were slaughtered”. He underlined that Europe must play a role in the country and that Syria must be careful in its policies with Türkiye. Israel will not agree to anything less than the full demilitarization of Gaza, the end of Hamas’ presence, and the return of hostages, he stated, underlining that Hamas carried out heinous crimes against Israel and that Iran was trying to annihilate Israel and says so publicly. He also described Iran as a factor of the region’s destabilization and an enemy of the entire Western civilization.
Responding to questions, Sa’ar said that Israel’s stance on the Cyprus issue was clear: it supports the territorial integrity of Cyprus, and he called Türkiye’s invasion and occupation of the island’s northern part unacceptable, while taking a stance against Türkiye’s efforts to present itself as a defender of regional stability.
As to talks in Doha, he said that efforts continued. He mentioned that his country accepted the special envoy’s proposal but Hamas rejected it. He also underlined that what is termed humanitarian help is that “in 42 days, 25,000 trucks of humanitarian assistance entered, which today comprises 50% of Hamas’ budget that it used to recruit new terrorists. And this is something we must keep in mind.”
