‘The goal is to increase aid to Gaza’

The aim is to provide more humanitarian aid to Gaza, using the aid corridor that Cyprus proposed and is being implemented, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Friday.

Responding to journalists’ questions on the sidelines of an event for women symbols of Cyprus, the president said that the second ship is being prepared, adding that “we want to increase the volume of humanitarian aid transfer, so we are talking to several states”.

He added that he had been in contact with the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who supported the initiative from the very first moment, and asked him for some technical assistance regarding the transport “so that we can run even faster”.

“He responded positively, in fact a team will be sent from the Netherlands and a responsible minister will be in Cyprus on Tuesday. We will have visits to Cyprus from heads of state who supported the initiative, they have already expressed their interest,” he said.

On Sunday, he will be in Egypt with the President of the European Commission, the Greek Prime Minister and two other heads of state, he added, and reiterated that the aim is to increase the volume of humanitarian aid even more.

“We are on a very good track, there is support after that started from clearly many more states because they see that what we said is being implemented and we are continuing,” he said.

Asked in relation to the pier the Americans are preparing, the president said the creation of the pier will allow even more aid to be transported because there will be no limit to the number of ships that can be used.

He said: “They are certain ships, for example the Dutch navy has such ships, it was something I discussed today with Mr Rutte. The creation of the pier will allow us to send clearly more ships and in fact the next steps were also discussed recently in the teleconference of the foreign ministers to see how to create a fund so that we can send even more,” he said.

“One goal is: more aid utilising this humanitarian corridor that we have proposed and everyone can see that it is being implemented,” he said.