Press Releases

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cyprus Dr Constantinos Kombos participated at the Ministerial Meeting of the International Coalition against Daesh/ISIS, which took place in Riyadh on Thursday 8 June 2023.

The Ministerial Meeting was co-organized by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Secretary of State of the United States with the aim of coordinating international efforts to combat terrorism.

In his remarks, Minister Kombos underlined, inter alia, the Republic of Cyprus’ steadfast commitment to global and regional efforts to prevent and counter all forms of radicalization and violent extremism. Cyprus, he added, has repeatedly offered and provided its infrastructure to Coalition members for conducting counter-Daesh operations. “We stand ready”, he continued, “to further examine possible avenues of co-operation with all partners, in support of stabilization efforts and specific development programs linked to tackling problems caused by ISIS/Daesh actions”. In this context, he expressed Cyprus’ readiness to offer to all partners the training capabilities of the Cyprus Center for Land, Open-Seas and Port Security Training Center (CYCLOPS), which was established recently in partnership with the US Government.

He also referred to the financing of terrorist activities through the illicit sale of looted artefacts, underlining that the ‘‘Nicosia Convention on Offences relating to Cultural Property’’, which was adopted during the Cyprus’ chairmanship of the Council of Europe in 2017, is the only international treaty specifically dealing with the criminalization of the illicit trafficking of cultural property. We whole-heartedly encourage all Coalition partners to join this important Convention, he concluded.

In the margins of the meeting, Dr Kombos had separate, bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Kuwait, Oman, Yemen, Iraq and the Republic of North Macedonia.

He also met with the Minister of State of Saudi Arabia Mr Adel Al-Jubeir and had an exchange of views on bilateral relations and key regional files, on which coordination with Saudi Arabia is considered crucial.

Dr Kombos returns to Cyprus today, 9 June 2023.

(MF/MV/SCH)