Exists serious risk of a miscalculation creating an incident on Lebanon’s border with Israel. “We call on all parties involved to exercise restraint and avoid further escalation,” the British Foreign Office responded to APE-MPE’s question about the threats launched by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah against Cyprus in the middle of the week.

THE Nasrallah in his televised speech on Wednesday, among other things, he claimed that the Hezbollah has information that Israeli soldiers are being trained in Cyprus and at the country’s airports, including the British bases. As he pointed out a month ago, he himself had asked Lebanese officers to discuss the issue with the Cypriot president Nikos Christodoulidis. “If Israel uses (Cypriot) air bases to strike Lebanon, (Cyprus) will be drawn into the war,” the Hezbollah leader emphasized in his speech.

Diplomatic sources of the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs told APE-MPE that “the areas of the dominant bases in Cyprus have not hosted any Israeli military personnel or aircraft since (currently and before) the start of the Israel-Hamas war”.

At the same time, the same source points out that Britain is “concerned about the situation on the Blue Line (border demarcation between the armed forces of Israel and Lebanon) and therefore the United Kingdom urges “all those involved to show restraint to avoid further escalation , as defined by Resolution 1701 of the UN Security Council”.

He also emphasizes that Britain recognizes “the essential stabilizing role played by the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF)”, while noting that “the United Kingdom is a long-standing supporter of the Lebanese Armed Forces and of the Internal Security Forces, which contribute to maintaining Lebanon’s stability.”

The issue also occupied the British media, with the Financial Times pointing out that in his televised address, Nasrallah for the first time threatened neighboring Cyprus, saying that Hezbollah would consider Cyprus “part of the war” if it allowed Israel to continue uses Cypriot airports and bases for military exercises.

According to Financial TimesNasrallah’s speech raises fears of a generalization of the war between Hezbollah and Israel as belligerent rhetoric has escalated since October, when the war between Israel and Hamas began.

On the same wavelength were related newspaper articles Guardian and Daily Telegraph.