Cyprus becomes embroiled in another Middle Eastern maelstrom with UK military bases on its soil

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — If the adage “geography is destiny” holds true, then Cyprus should be a prime candidate as its poster child.

Whether it’s the Greeks, Persians, Romans, Ottomans or the British, tiny Cyprus has been a prized possession for many. That's because of its proximity to arguably the world’s oldest hotbed of conflict, a region driven for centuries by faith as the birthplace of three great religions, and more recently by its vast energy resources.

Now, after nearly 66 years as an independent nation, Cyprus has found itself embroiled in another Middle Eastern maelstrom primarily because it hosts two large and significant U.K. military bases, the vestige of its British colonial past.

Drone strike reminds Cyprus trouble is always close

Minutes after midnight on Monday, a Shahed drone managed to evade the Royal Air Force's state-of-the-art radar installations at its base in Akrotiri. Typhoon fighters and six of the world’s preeminent warplane — the F-35 — were deployed to take out the drone, which officials said ultimately did limited damage to an aircraft hangar near the base's runway.

No one was injured, but the attack signaled a troubling expansion of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran into European territory. It also signified the first time a third country mounted any type of attack on Cypriot soil since Turkey’s 1974 invasion that cleaved the island along ethnic lines.

Warplanes intercepted a pair of drones in a second attempted strike on the base shortly after midday Monday, driving home the point that the initial strike was no accident.

Cypriot and British officials haven’t specified where the Shahed drone took off from, but speculation is that it was the work of Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah. The U.K. government insisted the drone strike on the British base wasn’t an outcome of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s decision to allow the U.S. to use is bases for its campaign against Iran, arguing that the UAV was launched before he made the announcement Sunday evening.

But that’s a moot point. If Iran or Hezbollah wanted to “punish” the U.K. it's unlikely it would try to hit its base on Diego Garcia in the middle of the Indian Ocean — it would opt for RAF Akrotiri only some 160 miles (260 kilometers) away.

RAF Akrotiri, with its massive runway, is a prime component of the U.K.'s complex of bases in Cyprus, including Episkopi Garrison in the west and Dhekelia Garrison in the east. Its breadth measures some of 99 square miles (255 square kilometers).

In 2003, RAF Akrotiri served as a major logistical hub for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. It’s still home to the famed U2 spy plane that conducts high-altitude surveillance flights over the Middle East.

Cyprus forges its own path

In its first decades of independence, Cyprus had steered clear of taking sides in any regional conflict, opting instead for a “neutral” stance that tried and more often than not failed to strike a balance between East and West, Arab and Israeli. The country's EU membership put it firmly in the Western camp. But the definitive turn came years ago with the election of President Nikos Christodoulides, a U.S. educated history and politics professor, who unequivocally declared Cyprus' pro-Western, pro-U.S. orientation.

Christodoulides has leveraged Cyprus’ geography to diplomatically position the island as the “bridge” linking the EU with the Middle East, pushing a humanitarian-centered foreign policy by assiduously building strong diplomatic, commercial and defense ties with Israel, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and other countries in the region.

After the RAF Akrotiri drone strike, Cypriot government officials from Christodoulides on down took pains to underscore that the country “has not, is not and will not take part in any military action.”

Heeding Christodoulides’ plea for help to bolster the island’s own anti-drone defenses, Greece dispatched four F-16 fighter planes and two cutting-edge frigates, while France will send a frigate of its own and land-based anti-drone and anti-missile systems, according to officials. Germany is also expected to send a warship, while Starmer said he's sending a warship and helicopters to help protect RAF Akrotiri.

The specter of Britain's military bases

Despite this, the British bases in Cyprus perpetually cast a shadow over any Cypriot government policy. The Cyprus government says U.K. authorities are obliged to inform it when they would use the bases for any military action, but that’s more of a courtesy than anything else.

Yale Fellow and president of the Politeia think tank Anna Koukkides-Procopiou likened Cyprus’ conundrum to the analogy of a billiards table where a ball sits undisturbed, almost forgotten in a corner of the table until it's suddenly thrust into a pocket after other balls collide with it.

“We’ve chosen sides and we have to face the music now," Koukkides-Procopiou told The Associated Press, adding the priority for Cyprus now is what it must do to make itself less vulnerable to the vicissitudes of its geography.