NICOSIA: Cyprus on Tuesday said it was in talks with parties in the Middle East and the European Union over its suggestion to establish a humanitarian aid corridor from the island to Gaza.
Nicosia is pursuing the option as fighting rages for a fourth week between Israel and Hamas, deepening a humanitarian crisis in the enclave.
“We are continuing diplomatic contacts with states of the region, the EU and the United Nations for this very important humanitarian corridor to become possible,” Cypriot government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis told a news briefing.
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, who floated the proposal at an EU leaders’ summit last week, was due to speak to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, Letymbiotis said.
Cyprus is the closest EU member state to Gaza, lying approximately 370 km (230 miles) north-west of the enclave at its closest point.
Details of how the corridor would work — including which authority would be running it and security issues — were still being discussed, sources said.
Cyprus believes the idea has merit because of its close proximity to the Middle East and good relations with all its neighbors, one Cypriot official said.
The Cypriot foreign minister, Constantinos Kombos, visited Jordan and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah on Sunday and Monday, officials said. The Cypriot President has also raised the matter with the President of Egypt.
The island was the springboard for several missions of foreign pro-Palestinian activists sailing to Gaza between 2008 and 2010, challenging Israel’s blockade of the coastal territory.
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Cyprus talks to EU, neighbors on humanitarian corridor for Gaza
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Cyprus talks to EU, neighbors on humanitarian corridor for Gaza
- Nicosia is pursuing the option as fighting rages for a fourth week between Israel and Hamas, deepening a humanitarian crisis in the enclave
- Details of how the corridor would work were still being discussed
UN arrives in east DR Congo town to prepare ceasefire mission
KINSHASA: A team of UN peacekeepers arrived in the flashpoint eastern Democratic Republic of Congo town of Uvira to prepare the deployment of a ceasefire?monitoring mission, the force said Tuesday.
Eastern DRC has been ravaged by three decades of conflict and faces renewed violence following the 2021 resurgence of the M23 armed group, backed by Rwanda and its army.
The M23 seized large swathes of territory in the east and launched an offensive in December on Uvira, a strategic town in South Kivu province near the border with Burundi.
The assault drew condemnation from the United States, which has mediated a fragile peace deal between the DRC and Rwanda.
That agreement provided for the UN’s DRC peacekeeping mission MONUSCO to carry out a field-monitoring operation with a view to implementing a permanent ceasefire.
On Tuesday, MONUSCO and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, a grouping of surrounding countries, said in a statement they had deployed a joint exploratory and preliminary assessment mission to Uvira.
Scheduled to run until Friday, the mission focuses on assessing access, security, logistics and engagement needs, MONUSCO said.
The statement called the mission “an essential step toward deploying the future joint ceasefire?monitoring mechanism.”
In January, the M23 withdrew its last troops from Uvira, claiming it was responding to a US request. The Congolese army said it had retaken control of the town.
Eastern DRC has been ravaged by three decades of conflict and faces renewed violence following the 2021 resurgence of the M23 armed group, backed by Rwanda and its army.
The M23 seized large swathes of territory in the east and launched an offensive in December on Uvira, a strategic town in South Kivu province near the border with Burundi.
The assault drew condemnation from the United States, which has mediated a fragile peace deal between the DRC and Rwanda.
That agreement provided for the UN’s DRC peacekeeping mission MONUSCO to carry out a field-monitoring operation with a view to implementing a permanent ceasefire.
On Tuesday, MONUSCO and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, a grouping of surrounding countries, said in a statement they had deployed a joint exploratory and preliminary assessment mission to Uvira.
Scheduled to run until Friday, the mission focuses on assessing access, security, logistics and engagement needs, MONUSCO said.
The statement called the mission “an essential step toward deploying the future joint ceasefire?monitoring mechanism.”
In January, the M23 withdrew its last troops from Uvira, claiming it was responding to a US request. The Congolese army said it had retaken control of the town.
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