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After almost an hour, the trilateral meeting between French president Macron, Greek Prime minister Mitsotakis and Cyprus President Christodoulides in Paphos, a city on the southwest coast of Cyprus was concluded. The three leaders discussed behind closed doors in a special room at Andreas Papandreou Air Base in Paphos. The focus was of course on the situation in the Middle East.

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Christodoulides: ‘The security of Cyprus means the security of Europe’

“Your presence, apart from its high symbolism, is of essential importance for Cyprus, Europe and the EU as a whole”, the President of Cyprus said, thanking both Emmanuel Macron and Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

“The security of Cyprus means the security of Europe, it means collective responsibility”, Nicos Christodoulides said.

The Cypriot president warmly thanked Mitsotakis for his immediate response and the dispatch of frigates and fighters to Cyprus as well as Macron for the French support.

Christodoulides also thanked Italy and Spain, saying that the presence of European powers in the region reinforces stability in a very difficult situation.

“Whatever happens in the Middle East has a direct impact and affects Europe,” the Cypriot president noted, adding that “this is why the EU must engage more with the wider region in order to strengthen security.”

“We are not involved in military operations. We remain committed to the humanitarian role which we have served all this time as part of the solution and never as part of the problem,” Christodoulides underlined once again, referring to the US-Israeli military conflict with Iran.

Emmanuel Macron: ‘When Cyprus is attacked, Europe is attacked’

“We express our full solidarity with Cyprus, which was targeted last week with drones and missiles,” the French president noted and commented on the Greek frigates and especially the French-built Kimon, saying they show “our strategic relationship (…) when Cyprus is attacked, Europe is attacked”,

Emmanuel Macron informed that the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is very close to Cyprus and stressed that France is on Cyprus’ side. The French president also referred to the importance of protecting maritime trade in the midst of war through what he called a “defensive mission”.

“The situation is also extremely worrying in Lebanon. Hezbollah must stop the strikes so that Israel can stop them. I have spoken several times with President Aoun and I want to express my solidarity with the Lebanese people,” Macron said. The French president stressed that the French presence will continue to exist in the Mediterranean, the Persian and the Straits of Hormuz, bringing energy security to the forefront, in addition to the priority which he said is “the protection of French and European citizens.”

Mitsotakis: ‘The Republic of Cyprus is not and will never be alone’

Kyriakos Mitsotakis noted that from the very beginning he had made the security of Cyprus a “national priority”, saying first that the message sent by the presence of the three leaders in Paphos is that “the Republic of Cyprus is not and will never be alone”.

The Greek Prime Minister thanked Emmanuel Macron for his presence in Paphos and of course for his immediate response to the need for military support for Cyprus.

“This practical solidarity with the Republic of Cyprus reflects the essence of the mutual defence clause,” Mitsotakis stressed, saying that “Europe remains a responsible power” and that in practice this reinforcement of Cyprus updates the mutual defence clause.

“Our moves are purely defensive, far from any military engagement”, he clarified.

The Greek Prime Minister then referred to the freedom of navigation, which is of great concern to Greece and Cyprus, speaking about the European operation Shields, while he asked the “other Europeans to reinforce the operation with waterborne means”.

The Greek Prime Minister also addressed the Cypriot people directly, saying “our brothers and sisters we would be here alone, but Europe shows and will show its practical solidarity with Cyprus”.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis landed in Cyprus shortly after 12.45 Greek and Cyprus time for the trilateral meeting with the President of Cyprus, Nikos Christoudoulides, and French President Emmanuel Macron.

At the Andreas Papandreou base in Paphos, the Greek Prime Minister, arriving with Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis, was received by Nicos Christodoulides.

The two leaders also witnessed the arrival of Emmanuel Macron in Paphos a few minutes later (12.56), with Nicos Christodoulides welcoming him and the two leaders embracing.

Meanwhile, the French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle is expected to arrive in Cypriot waters on Tuesday, escorted by three frigates.

But he also indicated he was not declaring the US mission accomplished in Iran just yet. “We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough,” he said.

US and Israeli warplanes launched new waves of strikes on targets across Iran on Monday, as large crowds took to the streets in Tehran in a defiant show of support for Mojtaba Khamenei, the country’s newly appointed supreme leader.

The conflict, now in its second week, continued to escalate, with fresh Iranian missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, US bases across the Middle East and energy infrastructure in the Gulf.

In Lebanon, Israel pressed its offensive against Hezbollah with raids in the south and airstrikes in Beirut, while an Iranian missile was shot down over Turkey. As drone strikes were reported in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said France and its allies were preparing a “defensive” mission to the Gulf protect oil supplies.

In Tehran’s Enghelab Square on Monday, thousands gathered to offer allegiance to Iran’s new supreme leader, hours after the appointment was formally announced.

Chanting “Death to America, Death to Israel,” and “God is Great,” some waved Iranian flags, others banners bearing the portrait of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the new leader’s father, who was killed after 37 years in power by an Israeli airstrike in the first moments of the war. Armoured vehicles lined nearby roads and security personnel were stationed on the rooftops of surrounding buildings.

“The path of the martyred Imam Khamenei will carry on under the name of Khamenei,” said Hosseinali Eshkevari, a member of Iran’s assembly of experts, the body tasked with selecting the supreme leader.

Another member, Mohsen Heydari, said the late Ali Khamenei had recommended the selection of the candidate who is “hated by the enemy”.

Israel has said it will target Iran’s new supreme leader, while the US president, Donald Trump, who has dismissed the younger Khamenei as a “lightweight”, criticised Mojtaba’s selection.

“I think they made a big mistake,” Trump told NBC. “I don’t know if it’s going to last. I think they made a mistake.”

The defiant rhetoric in Tehran and the appointment of Khamenei, who is seen by analysts as a hardliner with close ties to the Revolutionary Guards, intensified fears that the conflict could last for weeks or even months and leave deep instability in its wake. Stock markets across the world fell sharply on Monday after oil prices surged.

Iran’s attacks in the strait of Hormuz have all but stopped tankers from using the key shipping lane through which a fifth of the world’s oil is carried.

Speaking during a visit to Cyprus to discuss regional security, Macron said a new naval mission would be aimed at escorting container ships and tankers in order to gradually reopen the strait of Hormuz after the end of “the hottest phase of the conflict”.

France has already sent about a dozen naval vessels, including its aircraft carrier strike group, to the Mediterranean, Red Sea and potentially the strait of Hormuz as part of defensive support to allies threatened by the conflict in the Middle East.

Iran’s security chief, Ali Larijani, said in a post on X on Monday that safe passage through the strait of Hormuz would not be restored “amid the fires ignited by the United States and Israel in the region”.

Analysts have said Iran is hoping that restricting the flow of oil to global markets and attacking energy infrastructure in the region will threaten sufficient damage to the global economy to force Trump to end the US offensive, and bring an end to the war on Tehran’s terms.

Neither the US, Israel nor the Gulf states that have born the brunt of the Iranian attacks currently appear ready to consider concessions, however.

On Monday, Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Sabah, described Iran’s strikes on the kingdom as “a brutal attack by a neighbouring Muslim country, which we consider a friend, even though we have not permitted the use of our land, airspace, or coasts for any military action against it.” Saudi Arabia said Tehran would be the “biggest loser” if it continues to attack Arab states.

In the United Arab Emirates, authorities said two people were wounded by shrapnel from the interception of Iranian missiles over the capital, Abu Dhabi. By mid-afternoon, the Emirati defence ministry said 15 ballistic missiles and 18 drones were fired on the country on Monday.

A total of 253 missiles and 1,440 drones have been launched at the UAE since the war began. Four foreign nationals have been killed in the UAE and 117 wounded, authorities said.

Iran also attacked Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, where it hit a residential area, wounding 32 people, including several children, according to authorities. Another attack appeared to have started a fire at Bahrain’s only oil refinery, sending thick plumes of smoke into the air.

Bahrain has also accused Iran of damaging one of its desalination plants, though its electricity and water authority said supplies remained online. Desalination plants supply water to millions of residents in the region, raising new fears of catastrophic risks in parched desert nations.

Iran continues to target Israel with drones and ballistic missiles. A man was killed in central Israel in a missile strike, the first such death in Israel in a week, in which a woman was also wounded.

The war has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, at least 397 in Lebanon and 11 in Israel, according to officials. Israel reported its first military deaths on Sunday, saying two combat engineers were killed in southern Lebanon, where it is fighting Hezbollah.

An Israeli military spokesperson accused Iran of targeting Israel’s cities with cluster bombs.

“We are seeing on a daily basis [that] Iran is deliberately targeting densely populated civilian areas,” the spokesperson said.

The official said that Israel was attacking “terrorist infrastructure” in Lebanon, which has been pulled deep into the war in the Middle East since Hezbollah opened fire to avenge the killing of Khamenei, triggering an Israeli offensive, which has so far killed more than 400 people there, according to Lebanese authorities.

The Israeli military has ordered inhabitants to leave the southern suburbs of Beirut, much of south Lebanon and parts of the eastern Bekaa valley region – all areas that have served as political and security strongholds of Hezbollah.

“Mass displacement across Lebanon has forced nearly 700,000 people – including around 200,000 children – from their homes, adding to the tens of thousands already uprooted from previous escalations,” Edouard Beigbeder, Unicef regional director, said.

“Children are being killed and injured at a horrifying rate, families are fleeing their homes in fear, and thousands of children are now sleeping in cold and overcrowded shelters,” he said.

In Turkey, Nato air defences intercepted a ballistic missile that entered the country’s airspace – the second such attack since the war started. President Tayyip Erdoğan said that Turkey’s main goal is to keep the country out of the “blaze” of the conflict.