President Nikos Christodoulides on Saturday called on both Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to put an “immediate end” to “actions which may lead to further destabilisation” in the region.
Speaking to both of them in separate telephone conversations, he spoke of the possible “wider regional effects” of the developing crisis, and, according to government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis, “emphasised the importance of resolving disputes through dialogue and diplomacy”.
Letymbiotis added that Christodoulides had “expressed his strong concern about the escalation of tensions observed in the last few days in the region.”
He also said Christodoulides had spoken of “Cyprus’ readiness to continue to be helpful in these efforts as well as in contacts between the various parties.”
This, he said, would be done “on the basis of the excellent relations [Cyprus] maintains with all the countries of the region” as well as the island’s “constant pursuit of prevailing conditions of security and stability in the Eastern Mediterranean”.
Christodoulides’ intervention on the matter comes after pagers across Lebanon exploded on Tuesday, killing at least eight people and wounding nearly 3,000 others, including Iran’s ambassador in Beirut Mojtaba Amani.
The pagers’ mass explosion has been widely attributed to Israel, with Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary describing the incident as “Israeli aggression”.
