Cyprus said a suspect object had been detected close to Lebanese airspace on Wednesday, and a government source said two Greek F-16 fighter jets had been scrambled to intercept it.
A fence at the entrance of RAF Akrotiri, a British sovereign base in Cyprus that was hit by a drone early Monday, causing limited damage, in Cyprus March 4, 2026. Reuters/Yiannis Kourtoglou
Cyprus said a suspect object had been detected close to Lebanese airspace on Wednesday, and a government source said two Greek F-16 fighter jets had been scrambled to intercept it.
The alert was called off more than an hour later.
"The incident for which there was relevant information has been investigated and is considered closed. The competent authorities are monitoring the situation on an ongoing basis and all appropriate measures are being taken by the available means within the framework of established procedures," government spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis said in a post on X.
No further details were immediately available.
Two aircraft that were preparing to land at Cyprus' Larnaca airport were diverted while the jets were scrambled, the government source said.
The incident followed a strike by an Iranian-made drone on a British Royal Air Force base in Akrotiri in Cyprus on Monday as the U.S. and Israeli air war against Iran continued. Two other drones were intercepted by Cyprus later that day.
Cypriot officials said they believed the drones on Monday were fired by Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Writing by Michele Kambas
Negotiating teams from the U.S. and Iran could return to Islamabad later this week, five sources said on Tuesday, days after the highest-level talks between the two countries in decades ended without a breakthrough.
The deadline passed on Monday for the start of a U.S. military blockade of ships leaving Iran's ports, and Tehran threatened to retaliate against ports of its Gulf neighbours after weekend talks on ending the war broke down.
Israeli troops launched an attack on Monday to seize a key town in south Lebanon from Hezbollah fighters holed up there, pressing the war on the Iran-backed group on the eve of rare talks between Israeli and Lebanese government envoys.
To make this website run properly and to improve your experience, we use cookies. For more detailed information, please check our Cookie Policy.
Necessary cookies enable core functionality. The website cannot function properly without these cookies, and can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.