CYPRUS: From F1 to heart op for president (and Barca game in between)

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades kicked off a busy week with a flash visit to Abu Dhabi on Sunday where he was invited by the Crown Prince to attend the Formula One race, won by Team Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton who also took the title.

Some of the dignitaries in the grandtsands with him included King Abdullah of Jordan, Prime Minister Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid Al Maktoum of the UAE, host Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mansoor bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal Al Saud.
As usual, the Cypriot president talked about the Cyprus problem, regional issues, as well as energy and investments opportunities.
Back in Nicosia, he will meet with several political and other officials, including the three energy ministers of Cyprus, Greece and Egypt, the British Minister for Europe David Lidington, and the UN Secretary General’s Special Advisor for Cyprus Espen Barth Eide, whom he is expected to tell that the proposal for linking future gas revenues to talks on the Cyprus problem is unacceptable.
Of greater importance is Tuesday’s meeting at the presidential palace with the leadership of FC Barcelona, whose players (including Argentine star Lionel Messi) are in Nicosia for the Champion’s League match against local APOEL on Tuesday night.
And once he wraps up all his meetings, on Saturday Anastasiades will head off to a clinic in New York for corrective surgery to his heart mitral valve next Thursday, December 4.
According to government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides, the president is expected to recuperate under medical observation and return home “before the Christmas holidays.”
In his absence, House President Yiannakis Omirou will step in as Acting President of The Republic.