Kathimerini Greece Newsroom
Leaders of the Congressional Hellenic Caucus submitted a bill at the US House o Representatives aimed at permanently lifting the arms embargo imposed by the United States on the Republic of Cyprus.
The initiative provides for the lifting of restrictions and exemptions concerning the transfer of defense equipment and military assistance to the Cyprus. In practice, what is being requested is the abolition of the annual renewal of the waiver, which has been in place for five years in application of the provisions of the Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act of 2019, and its replacement by a permanent abolition.
This bill amends Section 1250A of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2020. It is recalled that the partial lifting of the embargo was made possible in 2019 through the EastMed Act, which provided that the lifting of restrictions on the export, re-export, or transfer of US arms to Cyprus “would advance the security interests of the United States in Europe by helping to reduce the dependence of the Republic of Cyprus on other countries, including countries that pose challenges to American interests throughout the world.”
At that time, it was stipulated that the US President was required to certify on an annual basis to the relevant committees of Congress, namely the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees of the Senate and the Foreign Affairs and Armed Forces committees of the House of Representatives, that the government of the Republic of Cyprus meets two conditions: “First, it continues to cooperate with the United States government in efforts to implement reforms regarding regulations to combat money laundering and the supervision of financial regulation. And second, it continues to take the necessary measures to prohibit access by Russian military vessels to the ports of Cyprus.”
The fact that Cyprus fully implemented these conditions, combined with the new upgraded role that the US attributes to it in the region and the new regional balances under formation, make the embargo itself – as well as the so-called waivers that have been in force in recent years – completely anachronistic, and have long ceased to serve American interests.
