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Cyprus President Appoints ‘Special Representative’ for Religious Freedoms to Protect Christians, Other Minorities in Middle East

by Matthew Boyle

The president of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides told Breitbart News exclusively on Sunday that he is appointing a new “Special Representative” of his government for religious freedoms to focus on protecting Christians and other religious minorities throughout the Middle East.

“Recognizing the critical importance of protecting religious freedoms and supporting minorities in the Middle East, I decided to proceed with this appointment,” Christodoulides said in a phone interview on Sunday. “We aim to work for the protection of Christians and other minorities through dialogue with states in the region and neighboring countries to strengthen their rights and promote sustainable solutions to the challenges they face but also to raise awareness in the European Union of this issue and to support the European Union’s efforts on taking under consideration the rights of these religious groups in our region.”

The appointment, per an announcement the government will release on Monday, is for Thessalia Salina Shambos — currently the political director of Cyprus’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the nation’s former ambassador to Israel — to serve as Special Representative of the Republic of Cyprus for Religious Freedoms and Protection of Minorities in the Middle East. The announcement of course comes right before Christmas, and is welcome news for Christians throughout the Middle East who have long faced difficulty but even more so now after the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria and heightened hostilities between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Both Christodoulides and Cyprus’s Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos told Breitbart News they look forward to working with President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance, and Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio on religious freedom matters next year when they take office. Christodoulides was one of the first world leaders to speak with Trump after he won the election on Nov. 5 and served previously as Minister of Foreign Affairs during the second half of Trump’s first term. Back then, in 2020, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Cyprus on his way back from meeting with the leader of the Taliban in Qatar as part of Trump’s push for peace in Afghanistan. Breitbart News accompanied Pompeo on that trip and visited the presidential palace with him in Nicosia.

 

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/12/23/exclusive-cyprus-president-appoints-special-representative-religious-freedoms/

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