Cyprus’ Foreign Affairs Minister, Constantinos Kombos, said on Thursday he will be visiting Israel and Palestine in the next few days. He was addressing the Economist 20th Annual Cyprus Summit, held in Nicosia, where he noted that the EU needs to establish a more meaningful engagement with the US as regards the situation in the Middle East and Ukraine, adding that the bloc was “becoming irrelevant” in the discussion.
He also said that it was up to Turkey to engage in a constructive manner in the region instead of being a source of disagreement and disruption.
In his address, on the Mediterranean in the midst of theatres of war, the implications for the region and possible paths to peace, the Minister noted that the crisis in the Middle East was not another chapter in a very long book of crises, but that it is a “very different, much more dangerous situation”.
He said that there is a paradigm shift, since, according to the Minister, two years ago “it would have been unthinkable” that Iran would directly attack Israel. Kombos said that the October 7 Hamas attack created a chain of events – the situation Gaza, in the Red Sea, the escalation in Lebanon, the situation in Iran – “a series of crises that are interconnected and multidimensional.”
He also referred to Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, noting that the international community was trying at the same time to resolve the crisis but also prepare for the day after, noting that it seems like a “mission impossible”.
For Cyprus, he added, the day after is a solution on the Palestine issue but first, he said, “we have to find a way to stop the war now.”
He noted that he was “going back to Israel and Palestine in the next few days.”
The EU, he said “is potentially a huge player that has decided to act as an observer.” “We need to be much more engaged”, he said, adding that Cyprus is much closer to what is happening on the ground than any other member state.
Kombos also said that a lot is happening in terms of negotiations, and discussions that create “a glimpse of hope”. In Lebanon he said, where a quarter of the population is displaced, as he noted, supporting the Lebanese armed forces could be a solution. He noted that there is progress in the crisis, as it became possible to decouple the crisis from Gaza.
The Foreign Affairs Minister also said that “we should turn our attention to the West Bank.”
“The EU, we have failed in my opinion, we are becoming irrelevant in the discussion,” he said, adding that the bloc is portrayed as fragmented and becoming to a large extend observer of the developments.
Referring to developments in the US, he said that the answer was dialogue. “We need to engage much more with the US, collaboration, more meaningful engagement,” he said.
He noted that, in the almost 20 months he has been participating in the EU Foreign Affairs Council, there has only been once participation of the US Secretary of State.
Replying to a question on Turkey, Kombos said that Turkey could be part of the answer. He noted that Turkey has supported Hamas which excludes Ankara from discussions with Israel. Kombos also said that Turkey has a role to play in Libya, Syria and in the whole region, and that it was up to Turkey to engaged in a constructive manner, instead of being a source of disagreement and disruption.
To another question on the EU’s relations with the US, he said that Brussels should already have at least the channels of dialogue in place as regards the new administration.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.