Cyprus intelligence service chief Tasos Tzionis contacted Lebanese insurgent group Hezbollah to ask for reassurances that the British Akrotiri air force base would not be used as a target, according to reports on Tuesday.

Lebanese newspaper the Beirut Time reported that Tzionis “contacted Hezbollah’s leadership and asked them to convey a message of reassurance to Iran that the British base at Akrotiri … would not be used to launch an attack on Tehran”.

“Tzionis requested Hezbollah’s mediation due to the good relations between them and the fact that they have ties with Iran,” the newspaper stated, adding that “the aim of the message is to prevent attacks from spreading to Cyprus”.

It added that this message was sent “given the island’s current paralysis and the fear of losing investments … from Israel, Russia and China”.

The Cyprus Mail contacted the government, which said it could not comment on the reports.

The report comes after British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had told President Nikos Christodoulides on Saturday that the British bases in Cyprus “will not be used for any offensive military operations”, following a robust telephone conversation between British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and her Iranian counterpart Abbas Aragchi.

Cooper had warned Araghchi against further attacks on British bases, after Akrotiri had been hit by an Iranian-made drone fired from within Lebanese territory on March 2.

However, Aragchi had then warned Cooper that the UK’s decision to allow the United States to use its bases on the UK mainland and in the Indian Ocean to launch operations made the country a party to the conflict.

He then said of the Gulf states that while “we respect the sovereignty of neighbouring countries and have no intention to attack them, unfortunately, however, US bases in those countries are used to strike us”.

The UK’s decision to allow the US to use its bases to strike Iranian sites targeting the strait prompted the Iranian government to retaliate, firing two missiles at the Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean.

Neither of the missiles reached their target, with one failing in flight and the other being downed by a US warship in the region.

The attempted firing at Diego Garcia shortly after Friday night’s granting of permission for the US to use British bases to strike sites targeting the Strait of Hormuz echoes the strike on the Akrotiri base.

Then, Starmer had announced on the evening of March 1 that his government would allow the United States to use its military bases – commonly understood to mean the Diego Garcia base and the Fairford airbase in Gloucestershire, on the UK mainland – in its operations against Iran.

Akrotiri was hit by a drone a couple of hours later, at three minutes past midnight on March 2.

Following the drone strike, Starmer then sought to clarify that British bases in Cyprus are “not being used by US bombers”, though he did stress that the drone had not been fired “in response to any decision that we have taken”.

Instead, he said, it is believed that the drone was fired before he had made his statement on March 1, before landing after his statements concluded.

Later, when asked why the bases in Cyprus are not being used by US forces, he said they “are not suitable”.