Cyprus Proposes Establishing a Maritime Aid Corridor to Gaza

On Sunday, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides discussed with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken about a Cypriot proposal to establish a maritime aid corridor to the Gaza Strip.

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In a written statement, Letymbiotis said that during the meeting they discussed the unfolding situation in the Middle East and stressed the need for a scaling down of the crisis.

"They also discussed in detail Cyprus' initiative for the establishment of a dedicated maritime corridor to deliver humanitarian aid to the population in Gaza," government Spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said.

Christodoulides earlier told the press that the details of how the aid could be delivered to Gaza are still being worked out. The Cypriot government is talking with the United Nations about how to handle the humanitarian aid, he added.

In an event related to the Israel-Palestine conflict, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store held a telephone conversation with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and confirmed that Norway supports the two-state solution and calls for a humanitarian pause in the Gaza Strip.

According to a press release issued by the Prime Minister's Office on Sunday, Store underscored the imperative to avert an escalation of hostilities between Hamas and Israel and called upon Iran to assist in preventing such an outcome.

He conveyed his deep concern for the humanitarian conditions in Gaza, especially the plight of civilians struggling with scarcity of essentials like food, medicine, and fuel. 

According to a statement published on the website of the Iranian president's office on Sunday, Raisi said the killing of civilians, particularly children, is "ghastly," denouncing it as "a flagrant instance of crime against humanity."

Raisi also called for stopping the war and killing of civilians in Gaza as soon as possible and making international efforts to allow the inflow of more humanitarian aid into the region.