AKEL C.C. Press Office, 10 April 2019, Nicosia

The Cypriot people can’t feel any security withthe announcement by the British Defense Minister concerning the deployment of 17 state-of-the-art F-35B fighter jetsin the British base of Akrotiri this autumn. The aim, as the British Defence Ministerstated, is for military staff to gain the necessary experience inmaintaining and flying the F-35B jets in an unfamiliar environment and for them to become fully operational in order to protect British interests and those of its allies anywhere in the world.

The question therefore arises whether this is part of a more comprehensive plan by Britain and its allies to turn Cyprus into a launching pad for waging aggressive military operations in the wider region of the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean. There is also the question of the danger in which Cyprus is involved and whether this is going onwith the full knowledge of the Cypriot government.

We recall that Turkey continues to be part of the F-35 program too.

As AKEL, we denounce the scheduleddeployment of the F-35B fighter jets to Cyprus and demand that it be revoked.

Cyprus must become a bridge of peace and not an aggressive launching padfor waging war.