On Friday, August 9, a protest took place in Limassol, the participants of which demanded that the authorities not allow an American tanker transporting aviation jet fuel to stop at the port, opposing Cyprus’s involvement in the conflict in Gaza.
Cyprus has become the center of international attention amid the worsening situation in the Middle East after the incident with the American tanker Overseas Santorini. The US-flagged vessel, carrying 300,000 barrels of JP-8 aviation jet fuel for the Israeli military, was scheduled to call at the port of Limassol. This could involve Cyprus in a regional conflict.
Activists in Spain and Italy had previously disrupted its port calls, and Cyprus was tipped to be its possible next stop.
The Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar, which supports the Hezbollah movement, harshly criticized Cyprus, accusing it of subordinating to American interests and collaborating with Israel to the detriment of the Palestinian people. In response, the representative of the Cypriot government, Konstantinos Letimpiotis, emphasized that the Republic of Cyprus will not allow the security of its citizens to be threatened and will remain a party to the solution, not the problem.
The AKEL party called on the government of Nikos Christodoulides to take into account the possible risks for the country due to the concentration of American forces on the island.
Source: alphanews.live
