In a televised address on 19 June, the head of Lebanon's Shia Islamist group Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, threatened the Republic of Cyprus accusing it of allowing Israel to use its airports and bases for military exercises.
A day earlier, in a statement concerning the meeting between the Foreign Ministers of Cyprus and the USA in Washington DC, the Press Office of AKEL (Progressive Party of Working People) was pointing out: