NICOSIA (Reuters) -Iran has asked Cyprus to convey “some messages” to Israel, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Sunday, adding he expected to speak to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later in the day.
He did not say who specifically the messages were from or what they said, although they come after the Cypriot foreign minister spoke to his Iranian counterpart on Friday night.
Christodoulides also said he was not happy with what he said was a slow reaction by the European Union to the unfolding crisis in the Middle East.
Cyprus, the closest EU member state in the region, had asked for an extraordinary meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council, he said. Projectiles sent by Iran to strike Israel were visible from various locations across Cyprus on Friday and Saturday night.
“It is not possible for the EU to claim a geopolitical role, to see all these developments and for there not to be at the very least a convening of the Council of Foreign Ministers,” Christodoulides told journalists.
Cyprus has offered to assist in the evacuation of third-party nationals from the region, and has called on all sides to refrain from actions which could escalate the conflict.
(Reporting by Michele Kambas; Editing by Jan Harvey and David Holmes)
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