ATHENS: A boat from a flotilla that had been carrying aid to Gaza until it was intercepted by Israel has docked in Cyprus, the Mediterranean island’s government said on Friday.
The vessel carrying 21 foreigners asked to dock in Larnaca for refueling and humanitarian reasons, a government spokesperson said on X.
He did not identify the boat, or say whether it had been among those stopped by the Israeli military.
After registering all the passengers, Cyprus provided for their basic needs and offered consular assistance, he added. Israel faced international condemnation and protest on Thursday after it intercepted most of the 40 or so boats in the flotilla and detained more than 450 activists from Italy, Spain and other countries, including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg. It said the activists would be deported.
Italy said on Thursday that the activists were likely to be sent to European capitals on charter flights on Monday and Tuesday. Four Italian parliamentarians were released and due to fly to Rome on Friday.
Boat from intercepted Gaza aid flotilla docks in Cyprus
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Boat from intercepted Gaza aid flotilla docks in Cyprus
- The vessel carrying 21 foreigners asked to dock in Larnaca for refueling and humanitarian reasons, a government spokesperson said on X
Iran, UK foreign ministers in rare direct contact
- A UK government source said Cooper “emphasized the need for a diplomatic solution on Iran’s nuclear program and raised a number of other issues”
TEHRAN: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has spoken by phone with his British counterpart Yvette Cooper, an Iranian foreign ministry statement said on Saturday, in a rare case of direct contact between the two countries.
The ministry said that in Friday’s call the ministers “stressed the need to continue consultations at various levels to strengthen mutual understanding and pursue issues of mutual interest.”
A UK government source said Cooper “emphasized the need for a diplomatic solution on Iran’s nuclear program and raised a number of other issues.”
The source in London said Cooper raised the case of Lindsay and Craig Foreman, a British couple detained in Iran for nearly a year on suspicion of espionage.
The Iranian ministry statement did not mention the case of the two Britons.
It said Araghchi criticized “the irresponsible approach of the three European countries toward the Iranian nuclear issue,” referring to Britain, France and Germany.
The three countries at the end of September initiated the
reinstatement of UN sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear program.
The Foremans, both in their early fifties, were seized in January as they passed through Kerman, in central Iran, while on a round-the-world motorbike trip.
Iran accuses the couple of entering the country pretending to be tourists so as to gather information for foreign intelligence services, an allegation the couple’s family rejects.
Before Friday’s call, the last exchange between the two ministers was in October.
