Cyprus offers its air bases to France in fight against ISIS

European Union member, Cyprus, has offered its air bases to France in the wake of the recent deadly terrorist attacks in Paris. Cyprus is the closest EU member to Syria in terms of distance. The eastern Mediterranean island state has said that it would not just be "very glad" to provide France with assistance but says that France can use its air bases as a launching pad for the offensive against ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq.

The state of Cyprus lies just 12 kilometers away from the Syrian border. Syria's coast can be easily seen on a day with clear skies. No formal request for the usage of Cyrus air bases has been made by France and that is why this proposal the Cyprus government is interesting. The Foreign Minister of Cyprus had this to say about this proposal:

“I want to make clear that we will wait for the French authorities, if they want to ask [for] something from us, particularly as regards our location and our facilities we would be very glad to provide them with this solidarity and assistance. We have not been asked about launching, but as you know, we have given all our support to the British bases launching from Cyprus.”

Cyprus is a former British colony with two military bases. Its base at Akrotiri is used as a staging post for forays into the Middle East by the Royal Air Force of Britain. It is also used to humanitarian missions and emergency landings.

Posted by James Fried on Thursday November 19 2015, 8:21 PM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0