Nicosia

Theocharis Lalacos, who served until recently as Ambassador of Greece to the USA, will soon be taking over the reins of the Greek Embassy in Nicosia. He succeeds Ilias Fotopoulos, who concluded his term in Cyprus last October.

Cyprus is blocking new European Union sanctions against several officials from Russia-annexed Crimea in a bid to secure EU backing for tougher action against Turkey in a separate row over drilling for hydrocarbons, three diplomatic sources said.

Nicosia denied linking the two issues and said it needed time to review the proposed measures against the Crimean officials.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu accused the European Union of being biased against his country on the Cyprus issue and Ankara's relations with Athens and Nicosia, saying the union "should actually play a balanced and objective role." 

Nicosia said the Republic of Cyprus accepted a request from Washington regarding the arrival of an American Rapid Deployment Forces unit in case of an emergency, amid rising tension in the region following the US assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Iraq last weel.

Nicosia has accepted a request from Washington regarding the arrival of an American Rapid Deployment Forces unit for humanitarian purposes in case of an emergency.
According to the Cyprus News Agency, the United States asked the Republic of Cyprus to give its consent for an American military unit to be stationed temporarily on the island.

With regional tensions simmering, Athens and Nicosia see Ankara's moves in the Eastern Mediterranean over the last six months as part of an organized plan developed by the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO).

At this difficult juncture in relations between Greece and Turkey, the Greek-American community played its own decisive role in the adoption into law by the US Congress of the Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act, known as the East Med Act. By doing so, it has strengthened the position of Athens and Nicosia.

Ankara is mulling over the possibility of using an airport on Turkish-occupied Cyprus as a base for F-16 fighter jets, reports said Wednesday, a move that would further stoke tension with Athens and Nicosia.
A report in the pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper said that the airport would be used by the country's F-16s "if necessary."

Cyprus hopes to restart reunification talks that fell apart in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana, the island country's Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides said in an interview with Kathimerini on Sunday, adding however that a fresh round of negotiations can only take place after a Turkish commitment to refrain from "violations and provocations" in the region.

As the world commemorates 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the bullet-riddled sandstone walls of abandoned, crumbling homes and concrete machine gun nests dotting Cyprus' no man's land serve as a jarring reminder of another divided capital — the world's last — on Europe's southeastern frontier.