Israel: air exercises are just routine

THE ISRAELI embassy yesterday downplayed reports in the press claiming that military exercises were being conducted in Cyprus’ airspace in order to send a message to Turkey. 

“Air force exercises over our allies’ air space are routine for the Israeli military and there is no political agenda behind this,” an Israeli source said. 

Daily Phileleftheros said yesterday that Israel and Cyprus wanted to send a strong message to Turkey and were collaborating on military exercises. 

Reports have talked of increased military activity in the vicinity of Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) as the Republic is continuing its hydrocarbon exploration within its EEZ with Turkey’s Piri Reis vessel deployed to assert its own interests in the region. 

The Jerusalem Post said on Monday that Turkey, the USA and Russia and Israel had all made use of military vessels to patrol the area. 

The Defence Ministry’s acting press spokesperson, Andreas Tyrimos, said only that “the Defence Ministry is not participating in any exercises.”

Cyprus signed an EEZ agreement with Israel last year and there have been an increasing number of high-level visits between the two countries.  

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.