Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos on Sunday called for the European Union’s foreign affairs council, a meeting of the foreign ministers of the bloc’s 27 member states, to convene over the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel.
According to the Cyprus News Agency, Kombos contacted the EU’s foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas to ask for the meeting to be held, so as to be able to “discuss in detail the rapid developments in the region and to coordinate the EU’s further diplomatic engagement”.
“The dangerously escalating situation in the Middle East region is at the centre of our attention,” the foreign ministry added.
Meanwhile, President Nikos Christodoulides had said he was “dissatisfied” at how the EU was “slow to react” to the conflict”.
“It is not possible for the EU to claim a geopolitical role, to see all these developments and not to have at the least, at the absolute minimum, a convening of its council of foreign ministers. So, we have requested this from the EU … and I believe that one will be held,” he said on Sunday.
Elsewhere, Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said that his country, alongside France and the United Kingdom, are ready to hold immediate talks with the Iranian government over its nuclear programme, with the aim of deescalating the conflict.
“There’s a shared expectation that within the next week, a serious attempt must be made on both sides to interrupt the spiral of violence,” he said.
The next foreign affairs council is currently scheduled to take place on June 23 – a week on Monday.
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