Greece's foreign minister said on Monday that threats by Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah against Cyprus were unacceptable and the European Union would stand by member states against all such threats.

"It is absolutely unacceptable to make threats against the sovereign state of the European Union," Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis told reporters on arrival in Brussels for a monthly foreign ministers meeting. "We stand by Cyprus, and we will all be together in all kinds of global threats coming from terrorist organizations."