Cordovez expected later this week

By Andrew Adamides

UNITED Nations Special Representative on Cyprus Diego Cordovez is expected to arrive on the island on Thursday or Friday, government spokesman Christos Stylianides announced yesterday.

He said President Glafcos Clerides had cleared his schedule for both Thursday and Friday in anticipation of the UN official’s visit, but added that nothing had yet been finalised, although the government had been officially informed that Cordovez would be visiting.

Asked what the government’s position would be on resuming talks on the Cyprus problem through a third party, rather than directly between the leaders of the two communities, Stylianides said the government was open to any suggestion concerning matters of procedure that could “facilitate the substance” of the Cyprus problem.

Stylianides also confirmed reports that Clerides would visit Moscow between July 11 and 14 at the invitation of Moscow Mayor Yuri Ruskov. The spokesman said he would be a guest there at the World Youth Games, which are taking place between July 12 and 18.

Clerides will also hold “courtesy meetings” with Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Patriarch Alexei.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides yesterday left for Luxembourg to attend a working dinner for the Foreign Ministers of the 11 EU applicant countries, hosted by the British Presidency.

During the dinner, the Foreign Ministers will be briefed by British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook on the outcome of the recent Cardiff EU summit.

The dinner is taking place on the sidelines of the regular meeting of the EU General Affairs Council, which marks the end of the British six-month EU presidency on June 30.

The presidency will then be taken over by Austria, which is sending its Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister, Wolfgang Schussel, to visit Cyprus early next month.

The visit was announced yesterday by House President Spyros Kyprianou after a meeting with President Clerides to discuss forthcoming visits by foreign diplomats.

The aim of Schussel’s visit is to “exchange views with the government in regards to Cyprus’ accession course with the European Union,” Kyprianou said.

Schussel has already visited Cyprus once, in April 1989.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.