Italy, Spain, France and the Netherlands will send naval assets to protect Cyprus in the coming days, Rome’s Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told parliament on Thursday.
A British Royal Air Force base on the island on Monday was targeted by an unmanned Iranian-made drone as part of the US and Israeli air war against Tehran.
The French military also said it would allow US aircraft on some of its bases in the Middle East during the conflict, adding that they “contribute to the protection of our partners in the Gulf”.
Spain will send its most advanced frigate to protect Cyprus after a drone strike on a British base on the Mediterranean island sucked it into the Middle East war, the Spanish defence ministry said.
Spain has come under intense US pressure for refusing to allow Washington to use its bases.
The “Cristobal Colon” will join French aircraft carrier “Charles de Gaulle” and Greek navy ships to offer protection and help evacuate civilians, the ministry said. Italy also said it would send “naval assets” to the EU member state in coming days and air-defence assistance to Gulf countries hit by Iranian strikes.
In an interview with RTL 102.5 radio, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said, “We are clearly talking about defence, air defence, not just because they are friendly nations but because there are tens of thousands of Italians in that area and around 2,000 Italian soldiers that we must protect.”
Britain’s defence minister John Healey arrived in Cyprus Thursday, a defence source said.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Tuesday the UK was dispatching “helicopters with counter drone capabilities” and a warship, HMS Dragon, to Cyprus as Britain continued “defensive operations” in the region.
The HMS Dragon is one of the Royal Navy’s six Type 45 air defence destroyers.
It is fitted with a Sea Viper missile system able to launch eight missiles in under 10 seconds and guide up to 16 missiles simultaneously, Britain’s defence ministry said.
The helicopters are Wildcat helicopters equipped with Martlet missiles that can take down drones.
On Wednesday, Cyprus’s High Commissioner to the UK Dr Kyriacos Kouros, said Cypriots were “disappointed” at the level of information-sharing with residents after RAF Akrotiri was hit and further drones intercepted.
“Let’s say the people are disappointed, the people are scared, the people could expect more,” he told the BBC’s Newsnight programme.
Starmer initially refused to have any role in the US-Israeli war with Iran but later agreed to a US request to use two British military bases for a “specific and limited defensive purpose”.
Those bases are in Gloucestershire, western England, and the UK-US Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean.
Starmer insisted that the Akrotiri base is not being used by US bombers.
Monday’s drone strike there caused minimal damage and no casualties, British officials said.
The families of service personnel have been moved away from the base as a precaution.
Source: France 24 with AFP and Reuters
--Agencies
