North confirms American visit to airport to inspect evacuation capability

The north’s ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli on Wednesday confirmed that American officials had visited Ercan (Tymbou) airport to inspect its capability for “evacuations” but said that this is standard procedure.

“The American embassy in Cyprus and the American office in northern Cyprus periodically apply to the transport ministry after obtaining permission from our foreign ministry. We then grant the necessary approval for the civil aviation authority. American consular officials then come and inspect the current state of Ercan airport,” he said,

He added that “the purpose of the inspection is, of course, primarily to determine whether Ercan airport can be used technically during critical times, and which type of evacuation aircraft can use Ercan”.

On the most recent occasion, he said, “the visiting team conveyed their appreciation and congratulations to our civil aviation authority” for the airport’s current state.

The mention of evacuation comes as the United States and Iran remain locked in negotiations regarding the latter’s nuclear programme, with fears arising in some quarters that the dispute between the two countries may descend into a full-blown armed conflict.

On this front, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to travel to Washington DC to meet United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday night, and is, according to Agence France-Presse expected to push Trump to “take a tougher stance” on Iran.

Earlier, Trump had told news website Axios that he is considering sending a second aircraft carrier strike group to the region to prepare for military action if negotiations fail, accompanying the “armada” he had sent last month.

“We have an armada that is heading there and another one might be going,” he said.

During previous regional conflicts, including the conflict which broke out between Iran and Israel last year, the island of Cyprus has been used as an intermediary point via which people have evacuated from conflict zones to their countries of origin.

This has typically been done through the Republic of Cyprus’ ‘Estia’ plan, which sees infrastructure operated by the Republic of Cyprus, including Larnaca airport and the ports of both Larnaca and Limassol, used as evacuation hubs.

More recently, fears regarding a potential new conflict involving Iran and the US led the United Kingdom to deploy six F-35B fighter jets to its air force base in Akrotiri.

British newspaper The Times reported on Saturday that the British government has “concerns [that] the US could attack Iran and plunge the region into a wider conflict”, and that the F-35B fighter jets will now join Typhoon jets which are already stationed in Cyprus and “carrying out missions over Iraq and Syria”.

The jets’ deployment comes amid heightened salience for the UK’s bases in Cyprus amid more fraught regional tensions, with the UK having previously bolstered its military presence on the island last summer in response to a back-and-forth of missiles fired by Iran and Israel at one another.

At the time, the country’s parliamentary under-secretary of state for the armed forces Luke Pollard said that there were “about 14” British Typhoon fighter jets stationed at the RAF’s Akrotiri base.

However, he did stress that the UK was not involved in bombing raids carried out by the US on Iranian nuclear facilities at the time.

Earlier last year, it had been reported that the US may ask the UK for permission to station aircraft in Cyprus for future attacks on Iran, with those reports coming after Iran had warned the US, the UK, and France that their bases and ships in the region will be targeted if they help to stop its missile strikes on Israel.