Cyprus told a Security Council session that, as a UN and EU member state “most closely connected to the region,” that Lebanon is “not a distant issue” for Nicosia. Cyprus' Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Maria Michael, stressed on Wednesday that President Nikos Christodoulides, also in his capacity as Chair of the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union, remains in constant contact with the country's President Joseph Aoun regarding the escalating situation, while calling on all parties to exercise “utmost restraint.”