The British bases in Cyprus are, once again, dragging this island into regional conflicts that have nothing to do with us. They are conducting operations that manifestly exceed their stated mandate, and they are doing so with complete disregard for the Republic of Cyprus.
A military drone came down in the Akrotiri flight corridor just hours after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced in a recorded message that Britain had granted the United States permission to use its bases for strikes on Iranian missile stockpiles. More unmanned aircraft followed. Before that, Defence Secretary John Healey had already declared that two missiles fired from Tehran had been programmed to hit the British bases in Cyprus — heading, he said, straight for the island. London later walked that claim back, and Nicosia engaged at the highest diplomatic level.
The logic is straightforward enough: without the British bases, Cyprus wouldn’t be a target. Nobody would be pointing missiles at us. But this isn’t new. Every time the British military installations on this island become active participants in regional operations, Cyprus gets pulled into the frame. It happened in June 2024, when Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah — later killed by the Israelis — openly threatened Cyprus. The occupation side piled on, with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan amplifying Nasrallah’s threats and extending them to Greece for good measure.
The bases are a problem. Their presence puts this country — and its people — in danger. If London wants to assist Trump and Netanyahu, that is its prerogative. But not from Cyprus. Whatever support Britain chooses to offer should be rendered from British soil — not from an island that has no part in these conflicts and no desire to acquire one.
The special relationship between Washington and London is none of our business. How they structure it, what they owe each other, how far London will bend — none of that concerns us. What is well known, of course, is that Britain has long functioned as Washington’s housekeeper — and no disrespect to housekeepers is intended. We cannot change that. The defanged remnant of the British Empire has made a permanent vocation of trailing in America’s wake. Fine. But that should not put any other country at risk.
What is not fine is what is now becoming clear: that London was telling Nicosia one thing while doing quite another with its military installations on this island. That is not merely irritating — and irritation, in any case, is not enough of a response. Nor are diplomatic notes. What Keir Starmer did amounts to deliberate misdirection of a sovereign state, and it should be treated as a hostile act. Nicosia has no choice now but to put the question of the bases squarely on the table.
The legal instrument exists. The International Court of Justice advisory opinion on Mauritius — subsequently endorsed by the UN General Assembly — provides exactly the kind of precedent Cyprus needs. Former Attorney General Costas Clerides, who handled the Mauritius matter, has already said in a written statement that recent developments demand the bases question be brought to the fore as quickly as possible. He is right.
Send the message to London now. Open the file the moment the regional crisis subsides. The continued presence of these bases is a threat to our security — and that must be said plainly, without equivocation. None of which, it should be noted, excuses those dispatching drones over Cypriot airspace either.
