Europe rallies around Cyprus after attack

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday pledged to defend Cyprus and dispatch additional warships to the eastern Mediterranean to strengthen allies' security in the region unsettled by the Iran war.

- BY SYLVIE CORBET AND MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS

Macron said he was visiting Cyprus primarily to show solidarity with the country, where a Shahed drone struck a British air base on the southern coast last week. It was the first drone attack of the war on European territory.

"When Cyprus is attacked, it is Europe that is attacked," Macron said after talks with his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at Cyprus' main air base near the southwestern town of Paphos. "We are bound to one another by strategic partnerships."

Macron had ordered the French frigate Languedoc to waters off Cyprus, a fellow European Union member, to bolster its defenses against drones and missiles. Last week, France also sent ground-based defenses against drones and missiles.

Greece has dispatched four F-16 fighter jets to the Paphos air base, and its frigates Kimon and Psara are already patrolling off Cyprus, tasked with intercepting any missiles or drones.