Iran’s ambassador in Nicosia Alireza Salarian denied that his country had asked Cyprus to “send a message” to Israel, reinforcing his government’s stance that no such request had been made following assertions to the contrary made by President Nikos Christodoulides.

Asked about the “message” to television channel Omega, he said, “no, actually, it wasn’t like this”.

“Your foreign minister [Constantinos Kombos] asked to have a telephone conversation with my minister [Seyyed Abbas Araghchi] and we arranged it. We didn’t ask to convey a message to Israel,” he said.

Then asked whether there was any “specific message”, he said his country’s government has sent “no specific message, not to any country until now”.

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This, he said, is also because Iran is in “indirect negotiations” with the United States at present.

“If we wanted to do something, we could ask the US, because the US is the main supporter of Israel, everybody knows,” he said.

He was also asked about the Iranian government’s warning that American, French, and British bases and ships in the region will be targeted if they help to stop its missile strikes on Israel, given the fact that the United Kingdom has sovereign bases in Cyprus.

“We have already raised this concern to the relevant authority … We also know that these military bases are not in the hands of the government,” he said, though he did warn that “if we see any aggression from the third country, we have the right to response”.

Kombos had been evasive when asked about the matter on CyBC radio on Monday.

“The basic question is whether there is a message which needs to be conveyed and what this message is. Well, I think the message is absolutely clear, that it is the issue of escalation, and I will ask a question about the message. Is it or is it not a message that for every attack, there will be a retaliation? Is this a message … It is a message, not a proposal,” he said.

Radio presenter Eleni Vrettou then pointed out that Iran had “said this publicly” and that “no one needed to send that message during a private conversation”, to which Kombos twice asked, “should it not have been said?”.

“Why should it not have been said? Does the moment not require it? That is, is this something that should not have been mentioned?” he asked, before criticising “all this noise that was made”.

Vrettou then interjected, saying, “the president caused this noise – if the president did not say it, no one would have asked if it was true”.

“In my opinion, it was said very correctly. The moment requires that there be this clarity,” Kombos responded.

Iran’s foreign ministry’s spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei was on Sunday quoted by news agency Reuters as having said that Iran “did not send any message to Israel via a third country”.

His comment came after President Nikos Christodoulides had said earlier in the day that Iran “has asked us to convey a message to Israel”, and that “we will do so”, amid an escalating conflict between the two countries.