{"id":446434,"date":"2026-03-02T15:53:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T14:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/03\/02\/droni-su-cipro-la-presidenza-ue-rinvia-lincontro-dei-ministri-a-nicosia\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T17:17:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T16:17:36","slug":"drones-over-cyprus-eu-presidency-postpones-ministers-meeting-in-nicosia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/03\/02\/drones-over-cyprus-eu-presidency-postpones-ministers-meeting-in-nicosia\/","title":{"rendered":"Drones over Cyprus, EU presidency postpones ministers’ meeting in Nicosia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – The Cypriot Presidency of the EU Council has postponed the informal meeting of the 27 European Affairs Ministers scheduled for today (2 March) in Nicosia until a later date. The decision was taken following the drone attack on the British base in Akrotiri, in the south of the island<\/strong>. An “unexpected development that has unfortunately affected today’s flights to Cyprus,” confirmed a spokesperson for the Cypriot Presidency. <\/p>\n

The attack caused “limited damage” to the military base, and Cyprus “was not the target.” Although the exact origin of the drone is currently being verified, it occurred a few hours after the UK allowed the US to strike Iranian missile sites from British bases on the Mediterranean island. A Cypriot government spokesperson stated a short while ago<\/a> that two other drones headed for the Royal Air Force base in Akrotiri were intercepted<\/strong> before reaching the base. Iran and its allies in the region are targeting several countries in response to the war unleashed<\/a> by the United States and Israel that led to the killing of the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. <\/p>\n

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, after speaking on the phone with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, said in a post on X: “Let me be clear: we stand collectively, firmly, and unequivocally with our Member States in the face of any threat.” Greece has announced that it will send two frigates and two F-16 fighter jets<\/strong> to Cyprus “to contribute to its defence against the threats it faces,” and Greek Defence Minister Nikos Dendias<\/strong> will travel to the eastern Mediterranean island tomorrow. <\/p>\n

The risks and disruptions to air traffic caused by the accident convinced Nicosia, which holds the six-month presidency of the EU Council, to postpone the meeting scheduled in the capital. On the agenda of the  informal Council <\/a>were discussions on the Union’s next multiannual financial framework, the fight against disinformation,<\/span> and EU enlargement.<\/p>\n

 Another EU-level meeting is scheduled for Thursday, 5 March, in Nicosia, this time involving the Ministers of Culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The war between the United States, Israel, and Iran halts the EU agenda: the European affairs ministers of the 27 were expected in Nicosia today, but during the night, a drone struck the British base in Akrotiri. Two others were intercepted in the morning<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":446386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25712],"tags":[27194,28781,27932,27337,32831],"class_list":["post-446434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","tag-cipro-en","tag-droni-and","tag-council-general-business-en","tag-middle-east-en","tag-presidenza-cipriota"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":446435,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446434\/revisions\/446435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}