NICOSIA: Three Qatari military planes took off from Cyprus’ Larnaca Airport to take part in operations against Libya on Tuesday, after an unscheduled stop-over for refueling.
Two Mirage 2000-5 jet fighters and a C-17 transport plane landed at the airport on the Mediterranean island’s southeastern coast in the morning after their pilots requested permission to make an emergency landing due to fuel shortage.
A Cypriot government spokesman said in a written statement the Cyprus government had originally turned down the request to land because it did not want to get involved in any way in the Libyan operation.
Cyprus authorities had not been informed beforehand by Qatar about plans for the planes to be refueled at Larnaca, according to the spokesman.
“They then asked permission for a forced landing because of a fuel shortage,” the statement said, “Civil Aviation, acting in accordance with international rules, was forced to grant permission for landing and refueling.”
Cyprus has sought to stay out of the conflict and President Demetris Christofias said Sunday the government had conveyed to Britain its objection to the use of British military bases on Cyprus for operations in Libya.
Britain’s Defence Ministry has said an air base on the south coast of Cyprus is used only by reconnaissance and air-refueling planes in support of the operation.
Qatar is the only Arab country which has agreed to take part in air operations against the forces of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Cyprus, eager to attract more investment from wealthy Gulf states, is currently negotiating with Qatar for a huge joint land development project in the capital, Nicosia, worth hundreds of millions of euros.
Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article. The Centre of Research on Globalization grants permission to cross-post Global Research articles on community internet sites as long the source and copyright are acknowledged together with a hyperlink to the original Global Research article. For publication of Global Research articles in print or other forms including commercial internet sites, contact: [email protected]
www.globalresearch.ca contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of "fair use" in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than "fair use" you must request permission from the
copyright owner.
