Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiades (right) and European Council President Charles Michel bump elbows following their joint press conference at the presidential palace in Nicosia on September 16, 2020. The European official is on an working visit to the east Mediterranean island. (YIANNIS KOURTOGLOU / POOL / AFP)

BRUSSELS - Cyprus will stand firm at a summit of European Union leaders over the bloc’s proposed sanctions on Belarus on Thursday, insisting that they can only be imposed if sanctions are also slapped on its neighbour, Turkey, a Cypriot diplomat said.

“To release the Belarus file we have to have an agreement on our proposals as well,” the diplomat said, adding that Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades met Charles Michel, who will chair the two-day summit, on Wednesday to lay out Nicosia’s position.

The EU vowed a month ago to impose sanctions on Belarus for alleged election fraud and human rights abuses, but the consensus-driven union has been prevented from fulfilling that promise by Cyprus, one of its smallest members

“I imagine there will be a long discussion in the European Council. I’m not excluding that something might come out of it but, as of now, I wouldn’t put money on having a happy outcome.”

The EU vowed a month ago to impose sanctions on Belarus for alleged election fraud and human rights abuses, but the consensus-driven union has been prevented from fulfilling that promise by Cyprus, one of its smallest members.

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Turkey began drilling for oil and gas near Cyprus last year despite warnings from Brussels, and fears of a military escalation mounted over the summer after NATO allies Greece and Turkey held naval drills in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The diplomat rejected criticism from some EU member states that Cyprus’ veto on the Belarus sanctions was undermining the credibility of the bloc to take foreign policy action in its backyard, pointing out that Turkey is the EU’s backyard too.

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He said that for Cypriots this was “a national issue” and so “if we have to be alone we have to be alone”.

“The (Cypriot) president is between a rock and a hard place in the sense that even the opposition said that the move on Belarus was good. So he cannot go back home having released the Belarus file without having anything tangible to show for that.”

READ MORE: Cyprus says ready for dialogue with Turkey but not under threats