Italy, Spain, France and others send naval vessels to protect Cyprus after Iranian strike |
Italy, Spain, France and the Netherlands will send naval assets to protect Cyprus in the coming days, Rome’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told parliament on Thursday. Crosetto said the deployment would occur in the coming days.
Britain and Greece have also announced the deployment of sea and air resources to EU member Cyprus after the runway of the British Royal Air Force base Akrotiri was attacked by an Iranian drone on Monday, as part of the US and Israeli air war against Tehran.
Spain’s defense ministry said it would send its most advanced frigate to protect Cyprus. The announcement comes as Madrid faces intense US pressure for refusing to allow Washington to use its bases against Iran, triggering threats of trade reprisals from US President Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, the White House said Spain had agreed to “cooperate with the US military,” only for Spain to reaffirm its stance on its bases and its opposition to the war.
Spain’s Cristobal Colon frigate will join French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and Greek navy ships to “offer protection and aerial defense” and “support any evacuation of civilians,” said a defense ministry statement.
The frigate will head for the Mediterranean after a mission with the Charles de Gaulle in the Baltic Sea and is scheduled to arrive at the Greek island of Crete around March 10, the ministry said.
Italy’s Crosetto also said Italy would be sending “air-defense, anti-drone and anti-missile systems” to certain “strategic partners” in the Gulf, confirming a statement from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Britain’s defense minister John Healey arrived in Cyprus Thursday, a defense source told AFP.
British Prime minister Keir Starmer said Tuesday the UK was dispatching “helicopters with counter drone capabilities” and a warship, HMS Dragon, to Cyprus as Britain continued “defensive operations” in the region.
HMS Dragon is one of the Royal Navy’s six Type 45 air defense destroyers. It is fitted with a Sea Viper missile system able to launch eight missiles in under 10 seconds and guide up to 16 missiles simultaneously, Britain’s defense ministry said.
The helicopters are Wildcat helicopters equipped with Martlet missiles that can take down drones.
On Wednesday, Cyprus’s High Commissioner to the UK Kyriacos Kouros said Cypriots were “disappointed” at the level of information-sharing with residents.
“Let’s say the people are disappointed, the people are scared, the people could expect more,” he told the BBC’s “Newsnight” program.
Starmer initially refused to have any role in the US-Israeli war with Iran but later agreed to a US request to use two British military bases for a “specific and limited defensive purpose.”
Those bases are in Gloucestershire, western England, and the UK-US Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean.
Starmer has insisted that the Akrotiri base is not being used by US bombers.
Monday’s drone strike there caused minimal damage and no casualties, said British officials. Service personnel’s families have been moved away from the base as a precaution.
France has sent its flagship aircraft carrier to the Mediterranean in response to the widening conflict.
“I have ordered the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, its air assets, and its escort of frigates to set course for the Mediterranean,” President Emmanuel Macron announced in a televised speech Tuesday, a day after he warned of the risk of the conflict spilling over Europe’s borders.
The Charles de Gaulle carrier has been pulled out of a deployment in the North Atlantic to head for the eastern Mediterranean. It made a stopover in the Swedish port of Malmo last week.
Macron said he was also sending additional air defense units to Cyprus.
“In addition to assets already in place, Rafale jets, air-defense systems and airborne radar aircraft have been deployed in recent hours” to the region, he said.
Are you relying on The Times of Israel for accurate and timely coverage of the Iran war right now? If so, please join The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6/month, you will:
Support our independent journalists who are working around the clock under difficult conditions to cover this conflict;
Read ToI with a clear, ads-free experience on our site, apps and emails; and
Gain access to exclusive content shared only with the ToI Community, including weekly letters from founding editor David Horovitz.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
You clearly find our careful reporting of the Iran war valuable, at a time when facts are often distorted and news coverage often lacks context.
Your support is essential to continue our work. We want to continue delivering the professional journalism you value, even as the demands on our newsroom have grown dramatically during this ongoing conflict.
So today, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6 a month you'll become our partners while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
1 ‘Quiet Death’: US sub fires torpedo to sink Iranian warship off Sri Lanka, in first since WWII
2 In world 1st, Israeli F-35 shoots down Iranian jet in air-to-air combat over Tehran
3 Op-edOf course this is Israel’s war in Iran. It’s America’s, too. We’d all better win it
4 IDF planning for at least 1-2 more weeks of Iran ops; over 5,000 bombs dropped
5 IDF carries out ‘extensive’ strikes on regime targets; Iran fires missiles at Israeli towns
6 Iranian missile downed as it heads towards NATO member Turkey
7 Shah’s widow warns Khamenei’s death alone won’t topple Islamic Republic
8 US, Israel targeting Iran forces involved in crackdown to enable renewed protests — officials
2026 US-Israel war with Iran