Israeli Iron Dome anti-rocket batteries may soon be delivered to Cyprus and be included in a transfer of some of that country’s air defense systems to Ukraine, according to a report in Greek newspaper Kathimerini. The article appears to contradict earlier reports that the Mediterranean island nation had purchased the air defense systems for itself. 

Greece, Cyprus, and Israel are close regional allies and maintain long-standing trilateral cooperation on security matters, but initial reports in Greece and Israel raised some eyebrows — notably because of the lack of any reaction of news of the sale on the part of Turkey, which is a major player in the eastern Mediterranean region and longtime adversary of Cyprus. Turkey has illegally occupied the northern third of Cyprus since invading the island in 1974, following a Greek-orchestrated military coup. It proclaimed a self-styled “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” there. 

While Ankara has never relinquished the land it captured, it has also rarely threatened the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus since then, deterred in part by a  demilitarized UN buffer zone that spans nearly the entire length of the island. 

Greek press reports dismissed some speculation that Cyprus had sought the Iron Dome batteries, the exact number of which has not been specified, to counter the threat of Turkish drones. Were the systems truly meant for Cyprus, it is almost unthinkable that Turkey would not register a strenuous complaint. 

Also, Israel and Turkey are on the verge of restoring full diplomatic ties. Kathimerini reported that last week the Cypriot foreign ministry said it was “monitoring the developments between Ankara and Tel Aviv, with Foreign Ministry director Kornelios Korneliou telling the Cyprus News Agency that Israel stood to benefit from good relations with the island.” 

The Israeli defense ministry has been cool on commentary about the sale, and the press officer at the Israeli Embassy in Cyprus declined to comment to the Sun. Kathimerini reported that the purchase order signed last week included “an anti-drone defense apparatus that could also work within Cyprus’ Russian-made Tor-M1 and Buk-M1 air defense systems,” and that “Washington has been calling on Cyprus and other allies to transfer Russian-made military systems to Ukraine, in an effort to boost Kyiv’s resistance to Russian attacks.”

The Iron Dome system, made by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, has proven itself remarkably effective in Israel at repelling Gazan rockets. According to the Times of Israel, Iron Dome is “credited with shooting down over 380 rockets from Gaza during the most recent round of fighting against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, at an unprecedented interception rate of 97 percent of the total rockets fired at population centers” and “has saved hundreds of lives since it was first deployed in 2011.”

Cyprus’s defense ministry has previously said that it would not rule out shipments of defense supplies to Ukraine, but would do so only if a third party were involved. In this respect, it would make sense that what Kathimerini terms an “Iron Dome light” delivery to Cyprus could form part of a general movement of some of the island’s defense equipment to Ukraine to help the military in its current fight there. It would be coming at a time when military aid from Europe to Ukraine has been ebbing, and Ukraine is in need of as much support as it can get as it tries to rout Russian forces from Crimea and elsewhere in southern Ukraine.

Long considered to be something of the eastern Mediterranean’s unsinkable aircraft carrier, Cyprus is itself a heavily armed state and often used as a logistics hub for military operations in the region, such as anti-ISIS activities in nearby Syria. Renowned as a holiday destination, Cyprus is also a former British Crown colony; two large British sovereign base areas, at Akrotiri and Dhekelia, occupy nearly 100 miles of land on the island.