Cyprus backstop? Ireland is not the only island with Brexit muddle

While the European Union and Britain wrestle over the "Irish backstop" issue in their stalled Brexit agreement, a similar problem is taxing another island at the other end of the continent - Cyprus.
In addition to military compounds, 22 communities with 11,000 people live in the so-called Sovereign Base Areas (SBAs), a British-controlled vestige of colonial rule that remains nearly 60 years after the rest of Cyprus gained independence.
Under the withdrawal agreement with the EU, so far rejected by the British parliament, this territory would have remained linked to the bloc under a customs union.
With no deal, the SBAs, which comprise three percent of Cyprus's land mass and are a farming breadbasket, could be thrown into legal limbo. Trade is an EU competency, which means any arrangement cannot be hammered out bilaterally between Nicosia and London.
Cypriot...