March 9, 2026
The following column appeared in eKathimerini.
By Ted Deutch and Endy Zemenides
In June 2024, then-Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah publicly warned that Cyprus could become “part of the war” if Israel were allowed to use Cypriot territory or infrastructure in a future conflict with Lebanon. It was an extraordinary statement—one that effectively attempted to place an EU member state in the crosshairs of an Iranian regime-backed terrorist group.
This threat is no longer theoretical.
This week, the Iranian regime directly targeted the UK’s military bases in Cyprus. This was not only an attack on British assets, but as a violation of Cypriot airspace, it was also a direct attack on the EU.
These attacks – given Nasrallah’s threat in 2024, and previous regime-backed terrorist activity in 2013 – were completely foreseeable.
In 2013, as the Syrian civil war threatened to spill across the Eastern Mediterranean, we first became acutely aware of Cyprus’s vulnerabilities to Iranian regime-backed terror proxies. Up to that point, few considered Cyprus a frontline state for Western security interests. Suddenly, the island nation appeared in a new strategic light. Hezbollah operatives had already been uncovered on the island planning attacks against Israeli tourists, and policymakers in Washington and European capitals were quietly assessing whether the island’s proximity to the Levant—combined with the presence of Western military facilities—could make it a target if regional tensions escalated.
Just 235 miles from Israel, Cyprus sits at the crossroads of Europe and the Middle East and has become a critical node in the emerging architecture linking Europe, Israel, and the Eastern Mediterranean. The island nation has helped to evacuate civilians during regional crises and hosted humanitarian corridors. It has increased its cooperation with partners on energy security and regional defense. This role has made the island more strategically important—and therefore more visible to those who seek to intimidate or disrupt that cooperation.
The vulnerabilities detected in 2013 were aggravated by a long-standing US arms embargo placed on the island in 1987 with the intention of helping to reunify the island, which had been forcibly divided since Turkey’s 1974 invasion of Cyprus. Instead of accomplishing its intended goal, the arms embargo has allowed Turkey to continue its occupation of the northern third of Cyprus – with the aid of American weapons – while Cyprus, an EU member state and increasingly important player in regional security, has been forced to rely on weapons systems and agreements – even Russian ones – that have precluded it from optimizing security cooperation with other Western partners.
That is why our organizations championed the Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act of 2019 (the East Med Act) and helped it become law. Among its many provisions, the East Med Act repealed the aforementioned arms embargo as it applied to Cyprus as long as Nicosia met certain conditions. For every year since then, Cyprus has met those conditions. Yet, despite the State Department providing an annual waiver of the arms embargo without fail, the mere prospect that it may fail to do so prevents Cyprus and its other partners from building strategic, long term defense partnerships. Thus, creating an unjustified roadblock for Western security interests in the Mediterranean.
This gap in Western security should be closed immediately. Effective defense planning and procurement cannot be done annually. Congress must build on Cyprus’s inclusion in the Foreign Military Sales and Excess Defense Articles programs by the Executive Branch and permanently waive the arms embargo as it applies to Cyprus. This is not only a matter of pragmatism, but also a more accurate reflection of strong US-Cypriot security ties, including through Eastern Mediterranean cooperation with Greece and Israel.
Even as the Eastern Mediterranean has been rocked by instability and conflict over the past two decades, Cyprus has contributed to stability. Nicosia’s energy diplomacy, humanitarian efforts, steadfast actions against malign actors, and diplomatic relationships have all been assets for the United States. Cyprus’s security and ability to continue its stabilizing role in the region are inseparable from the broader contest with Iranian regime-backed terror networks and other malign actors seeking to project power across the region. It is time to permanently waive the Cyprus arms embargo.
Ted Deutch is AJC CEO. Endy Zemenides is Executive Director of the Hellenic American Leadership Council.
