NICOSIA, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Cyprus, from where some of the planes which hit targets in Syria on Saturday took off, hinted on Monday at being unhappy about the use of force over the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government.
"Cyprus, as a member state of the European Union sides up with the positions of EU and considers that the use of chemical weapons is unacceptable. But we wished that this issue should be settled at diplomatic level," government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou told the state radio.
Four British Tornado strike planes took off from a British air base at Akrotiri, on the south Cypriot shores, to fire Storm Shadow missiles which homed in on their targets at Homs.
Prodromou again distanced the Cyprus government from the decision to use its soil for the attacks, saying that it had no prior notification about the attacks.
"It is well known that the bases are British sovereign area and the government has no control whatsoever over their function... Decisions (by Britain) on how to use the bases are not been affected either by (our) wishes or prayers," Prodromou said.
Prodromou sidestepped a comment that some parties in Cyprus consider the use of force against Syria to be illegal, saying that no party has so far suggested that the government should ask for the termination of the presence of the British bases.
Legal experts say that denouncing the treaty which forms the legal justification for the existence of the British bases would amount to denouncing the 1960 Treaty of Establishment which forms the legal basis for the establishment of Cyprus, a former British colony, as an independent state.
The two treaties are bound together in a single document of international law.
