US urges Hezbollah to stop threatening other countries after warnings against Cyprus

June 21. () –

The spokesman for the United States Department of State, Matthew Miller, has urged the Lebanese Shiite militia party Hezbollah to stop threatening other countries after the group’s leader, Hasan Nasrallah, opened the doors to attacking Cyprus if it entered in an open war with Israel because the Israeli Army operates from the island.

“Those comments are extremely fruitless, and Hezbollah should stop threatening, and our preference would be for Hezbollah to seek a diplomatic resolution. I think that is the most productive thing to do. And, of course, threatening other countries that are not involved in this at all conflict is not a beneficial step for them,” Miller highlighted during a press conference.

Regarding the meeting between the Secretary of the State Department, Antony Blinken, and the Foreign Minister of Cyprus, Constantinos Kombos, the spokesperson assured that they did not talk about Nasrallah’s words because his speech was after the meeting.

Blinken thanked his counterpart for “delivering humanitarian aid to the population of Gaza,” considering that the island has had “a key role as a transit area” to “help” and “feed” “innocent Palestinians.” “I don’t understand why Hezbollah would attack a country in the middle of that important humanitarian role, why it would launch this type of verbal attack,” Miller added.

The Cypriot Foreign Ministry, for its part, has denied that the country facilitates actions against other countries from its territory or infrastructure, and has insisted that it is a “stabilizing” actor and a “recognized regional center for humanitarian operations” that has good relations with the countries around it.

“As far as Lebanon is concerned, the excellent relations between both countries are well known. President (Nikos) Christodoulides has visited the country twice in the last three months, spearheading the unlocking of an EU financial aid package of 1 billion euros to reinforce stability in Lebanon. Cyprus is not part of the problem. As is widely recognized, its diplomatic footprint is part of the solution,” reads a statement published on its X social network profile.

The day before, the Hezbollah leader warned that Israel “conducts operations in Cyprus every year” and that it will not hesitate to make use of Cypriot infrastructure in the event of a war against the Islamist militia. “You know that the resistance will attack you. At that time we will consider ourselves in a state of war with Cyprus,” he said.

After this, Christodoulides responded that Cyprus is “part of the solution and not the problem”, and that he would not take a position in a possible conflict between Israel and Hezbollah; Furthermore, he acknowledged that these words are worrying and that “they do not reflect reality.”

The Israeli Army and Hezbollah – backed by Iran and which has significant political weight in Lebanon – have been engaged in a series of clashes since October 8, a day after the attacks carried out by Hamas and other Palestinian factions. Since then, Gazan authorities, controlled by the Islamist group, have reported the deaths of nearly 37,400 Palestinians.

Tensions have been rising in recent weeks and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently warned that the Israeli Army “is prepared for very powerful action” on the border with Lebanon. In response, Hezbollah’s ‘number two’, Naim Qassem, warned that an expansion of the conflict would lead to “devastation and destruction” in Israel. Nasrallah has opposed a possible “total war” although he has recommended Israel to “remain prepared” in the north of the country.