Cyprus: We Need an EU Superstate to Save the Middle East
The European Union is becoming irrelevant as crises engulf the region, according to a set of speeches from Cyprus’s president and foreign minister at a summit hosted by the Economist yesterday. The EU needs to make bold decisions, said President Nikos Christodoulides, so Cyprus supports a federal EU—with a stronger centralized government.
“Stability, welfare and security in the Eastern Mediterranean are inextricably linked to the security and stability of the EU,” he said.
Christodoulides called for the EU to “play a substantive role in the region” with “active involvement” and “close cooperation with regional partners … such as Egypt and Jordan and the Gulf states.” He offered up his own country of Cyprus to “act as a bridge between the EU and the region.”
To help achieve this, he called for unity on Cyprus, currently split between the Republic of Cyprus in the south and west and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the north and east.
It is time for an independent, reunified Cyprus capable of maintaining and enhancing its role in the region. This is vital for Europe and the world.
—Nikos Christodoulides
The speech comes as Cyprus prepares to hold the EU’s rotating presidency in 2026. Christodoulides said his goal for that presidency was to bring the EU closer to its Middle Eastern partners.
Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos warned that the EU risked becoming “irrelevant in the whole discussion” of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. He said the current situation was not just the latest in a series of crises but “a very different, very dangerous situation.”
Just a few hours after these comments, a pro-Kremlin broadcaster on Russian state tv encouraged the Russian government to strike British bases in Cyprus. Over the summer, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (now dead) also threatened to attack Cyprus.
No wonder Cyprus believes a strong EU is needed. Representatives of the United Kingdom and the United States were at the summit, and Cyprus is looking to its traditional allies to help. But it is increasingly relying on the EU for safety.
After Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote:
You need to recognize what the pope and the Vatican are doing in Cyprus, the Holy Land and Jerusalem. That is the key to understanding what Europe is doing, what Germany is doing, why Cyprus is important—and why the Israelis have a hidden threat far greater than Hamas, Hezbollah or even Iran!
Cyprus is a key component of the EU’s vision for the Middle East. The speeches yesterday show Cyprus is willing to play that vital role. To learn more, read our article “As You Watch Gaza—Watch Germany.”
