Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meets President Nikos Christodoulides in Nicosia on Thursday, their third meeting since Christodoulides took office. For the government, the visit carries messages in two directions: to the region, and to its critics at home.
Regionally, the visit is addressed to Turkey, which is seen as the main voice of the Palestinian cause, and to the wider Arab world. At home, it answers the left-wing opposition, which accuses the Christodoulides government of pursuing a one-sided, pro-Israel policy and disregarding the Palestinians. The government’s message is that it can talk to everyone in the region and beyond without this causing a problem.
The talks
Abbas is on a working visit to Cyprus on 29 and 30 October, his third to the island. The two presidents will hold private talks at the Presidential Palace on Thursday morning, followed by a working lunch, Government Spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis said in a written statement.
They will discuss bilateral relations, the situation in the region, EU-Palestine relations and the latest developments in the Cyprus problem. Cyprus’s humanitarian role is also on the agenda, including the Amalthea aid corridor to Gaza. Letymbiotis said the two countries have “long-standing historical relations and close ties”, politically and in other fields, as well as in cooperation between their peoples.
Earlier contacts
Abbas made his first official visit to Cyprus in July 2009, under President Demetris Christofias, and returned 13 years later, in June 2022, under President Nicos Anastasiades.
Christodoulides made an official visit to Ramallah on 2 August 2023, the first by a Cypriot president to Palestine since 2015. He met Abbas, agreed to hold a trilateral summit of Cyprus, Greece and Palestine, and laid a wreath at the tomb of Yasser Arafat. The two leaders spoke by phone on 20 January 2024. On 4 May 2025, during a trip to Jerusalem and Ramallah, Christodoulides met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Abbas. He gave an update on aid sent through Cyprus and spoke about the role of Cyprus’s upcoming EU presidency.
The Amalthea corridor grew out of a proposal Christodoulides made in November 2023, at an international conference in Paris on humanitarian aid to Gaza, for a maritime corridor from Cyprus. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced its launch with a pilot mission in Larnaca on 8 March 2024. The partners were the Commission, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and the United Kingdom, and the first ship sailed that month. On 29 August 2025, Cyprus and the United Arab Emirates issued a joint statement on Amalthea announcing 1,200 tonnes of aid via Ashdod, funded by the Amalthea Fund.
At Sharm el-Sheikh on 13 October 2025, Christodoulides put forward six Cypriot initiatives based on the 20-point plan for Gaza. Ten days later, on 23 October, he presented Cyprus’s six-point plan for Gaza to EU leaders at the European Council in Brussels. In December, Cyprus voted at the United Nations in favour of the resolution on the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. When Cyprus took over the presidency of the Council of the EU on 1 January 2026, its priorities included support for the Gaza peace plan and for aid through the Cypriot corridor.
Foreign Minister Konstantinos Kombos has also kept up contacts with the Palestinians. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki made a working visit to Nicosia at his invitation on 14 February 2024 and was also received by Christodoulides, with talks covering the Middle East, bilateral relations and the Cyprus problem. On 3 June 2024, ahead of a visit to Egypt, Kombos told Al-Ahram that a two-state solution was the only viable option and that Cyprus opposed the displacement of Palestinians. He spoke by phone with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa on 10 July.
During a working visit to Israel and the West Bank on 22 and 23 December 2024, Kombos met Mustafa in the West Bank and opened a community health centre in Ein Qiniya, Ramallah. The 230,000-euro project was fully funded through the ‘Cyprus Aid’ programme. He also met Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem.
On 28 January 2026, Kombos told the European Parliament that the EU could not remain a mere observer in Gaza. On 19 February, he attended a meeting of the Board of Peace in Washington as an observer, and Cyprus submitted proposals on reconstruction and security. At the second meeting of the Palestine Donor Group in Brussels on 13 July, he announced new funding for hospitals in East Jerusalem.
