OUT OF THE BLUE on Wednesday it was announced that the Israeli President Isaak Herzog would be visiting Cyprus the next day for a meeting with Prezniktwo. The visit of a head of state is usually planned well in advance and an announcement of the date is made long before the visit, not just 24 hours ahead.
Even more bizarre was that the Prez was to have been in Athens on Thursday for the funeral of the former prime minister Costas Simitis. He would be back in Kyproulla for the meeting that was scheduled for the afternoon, it was reported. When you have a private jet at your disposal it is much easier to work to a very tight schedule.
If the short notice of the visit was intended to catch the anti-Israel protestors unprepared, it failed. Akel and its satellite, the Cyprus Peace Council, found plenty of time to organise demonstrations – at two spots – telling Herzog he was “persona non grata” and shouting “killer go home” among other welcoming greetings.
The biggest Akel mob, including members of the party leadership, gathered outside the presidential palace where the meeting took place, but disappointingly the protest produced no incidents of any sort.

THE BIG surprise – and in a way an explanation for Herzog’s visit – was provided by Friday’s Phil, which under the headline “Israel and Emirates at Presidential (Palace)” on its front page, reported that the United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, was at the palace almost at the same time as Herzog.
No other medium reported the presence of the Sheikh at the palace, nor had his visit been announced in advance. Phil, who was obviously briefed by the palace, reported that “the role of Turkey was at the centre of the talks”.
“The situation in Syria and role Turkey was trying to play in the neighbouring country and more broadly was the central theme of the discussion of President Christodoulides with his Israeli counterpart and foreign minister of the Emirates who found themselves almost simultaneously at the presidential palace.”
It was a narrative that should have been taken with a sack of salt. The idea that Prezniktwo summoned Herzog and Zayed Al Nahyan to the palace at the same time to discuss Kyproulla’s concerns about the situation in Syria, separately with each, is a political fantasy straight out of the government’s delusions-of-grandeur handbook.
A MORE likely explanation for the simultaneous presence of the two men at the presidential palace on Thursday afternoon was that they wanted to meet in person to discuss the Gaza ceasefire and the return of the Israeli hostages and our prez kindly played the host.
The fact that Zayed Al Nahyan arrived incognito, and his visit was made public only after he had already left does not support the claim that he came to see our Prez. He was here in the hope he would accidentally bump into Herzog in a corridor of the presidential palace while both were taking a break from their separate meetings with the Prez to visit the toilet.
Deputy government spokesman Yiannis Antoniou, quizzed on Trito about the possibility of the two meeting while at the palace, did not deny there may have been a meeting of the two guests in his diplomatic answer. He said:“What I can say officially was that two consecutive meetings took place with the president, first was with the Emirates official and the second with the president of Israel. Beyond that, if there had been any other meeting of the two between them, I cannot say. That is for them to say.”
REGARDING the way the visit of Zayed Al Nayan was arranged, Antoniou said there had been a “communication with the Emirates” about the drastic changes in the region and the role Turkey was playing in Syria, and the wish for a meeting was expressed.
The government made no announcement about the visit, he said, “out of respect for the wishes” of the visitor. Why the Emirates foreign minister would want to keep a visit to Prezniktwo secret was not explained. Could it have been because the visit to the Prez was just the cover for a meeting with Herzog that neither wanted publicised?
Again Antoniou hinted at this saying that there were “negotiations about the ceasefire (in Gaza) and release of hostages”. Herzog and Zayed Al Nayan did not come to Kyproulla to discuss these “sensitive matters” with our Prez or to seek his help. Nor is it likely they talked about Turkey’s role in Syria with him for very long, as the priority were the hostages and ceasefire.
Our government’s respect for the Emirates minister’s desire not to publicise his visit, however, expired soon after he left the palace. A picture of him and the Prez shaking hands was given to Phil to accompany the story about his visit.
The Prez just could not resist the temptations to let everyone know that he played host to two major movers and shakers of the Middle East.
ANOTHER reason given for Herzog’s visit was that he wanted to hear what our Prez had discussed with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during his visit to Cairo on Wednesday for the tenth trilateral summit, which also included Greece’s PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
These trilateral meetings, inaugurated by Nik the First as part of his energy strategies, which proved a colossal failure, can only be described as a complete waste of time. They have produced nothing more than declarations and platitudes that nobody, not even the signatories, takes seriously. The latest summit produced a long-winded declaration that touched on every issue under the sun – Libya, Gaza, Syria, the EU, terrorism, climate change, green energy, the Law of the Sea, health, culture, natural gas among other things.
Even the Cyprob got a mention, the leaders saying, “recognising that a comprehensive and viable settlement will contribute to peace and stability in our region, we repeat our support for a resumption of a Cyprus-owned peace process….”
What was reassuring was that like all the nine trilateral summits before it, the tenth stuck to the alliance’s commitment to talking big and avoiding all forms of action.
NEWLY APPOINTED ‘Special Representative of the Cyprus Republic for Religious Freedoms and Protection of Minorities in the Middle East,’ (SRCRRFPMME), Thessalia-Saline Shambou (or is it Shampoo), was in action last week.
Between January 7 and 10 she visited Beirut and Damascus and, according to an official announcement, “in the framework of her terms of reference, had extensive meetings and contacts centred on regional developments and in particular developments in Syria.”
Our Prez has decided to protect the Christian communities of the Middle East and created the new position for Shambou. She met will all types and ranks of priests in Beirut while in Damascus she met the Antioch patriarch and two Orthodox bishops. She was not able to meet Syria’s new leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani to ask him to show respect for Christians, but perhaps she will do so when she visits again.
According to a tweet on ‘X’ by Mini Me “the mission of the special representative has vital importance for the region, as it promotes the safeguarding of religious and cultural heritage and strengthens the voices that seek…. With Cyprus operating as bridge of dialogue, the mission contributes to the promotion of harmonious co-existence and regional cooperation.”
I just hope some Islamist group does not decide to take Shambou prisoner while she is teaching them to respect religious freedoms and Christian minorities.
PREDICTABLY, most of the football clubs failed to pay their most recent debts to the state (since April 2023) which would have made them eligible for the repayment scheme by which the taxpayer would have paid off all their older debts to the state, totalling €31m, by the end of 2024 deadline set by the government.
As a result, the Tax Commissioner has decided to prosecute them for non-payment of all their tax dues. This has frightened the club bosses who have been desperately seeking a meeting with Prezniktwo, so they can fall on their knees and beg him to hold off the Tax Commissioner.
Not only has the Prez refused to meet them, on Thursday he spoke to the Tax Commissioner and told him to enforce the law in the case of the football clubs. That would be a first and a big shock for club bosses, who for decades have got away with showing utter contempt for the law.
Meanwhile, the smooth-talking deputy president of the Cyprus Football Association (CFA), Haris Loizides has decided to take up the ‘can’t pay, won’t pay’ cause of the clubs, saying that a solution had to be found. The government has undertaken to pay off €31m of the €35m owed by the clubs to the state – as long as they pay the €4m – and Loizides is still looking for another solution?
FOOTBALL guys have a nerve if nothing else. Loizides criticised the media on Wednesday for naming the four clubs that would be prosecuted first. He demanded that respect was shown to the clubs, presumably the same kind of respect that the clubs have always shown for the law.
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