By Athena Karsera
PRESIDENT Glafcos Clerides yesterday returned from his 10-day visit to New York, where he was attending the UN General Assembly.
Speaking on his arrival, Clerides spoke of developments in the Cyprus Problem and moved to quash rumours that a US deal to cancel the controversial S-300 missile deal was in the offing.
Regarding the impact his New York meetings might have on developments in the Cyprus Problem, Clerides simply said UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan was “studying some proposals, which are not ready to be announced yet”.
Adding that the contribution of political party leaders accompanying him to New York had been “excellent and productive”, he said: “we have agreed that the results will be taken before the Council of Ministers, which I will call on October 9 and decisions will be taken there”.
On American efforts to break the current deadlock, the president said he was convinced that “they are continuing to try”.
This, he said, was demonstrated by the fact that “not only the United States, but all the permanent members of the Security Council, through their Foreign Ministers… attended a meeting where all the Foreign Ministers, and (US Secretary of State) Madeleine Albright, made an announcement calling on both sides to continue or to begin intensive negotiations based on the votes of the Security Council.”
“And we all know what the Security Council votes are about,” he added.
Clerides underlined that the Foreign Ministers’ announcement came after separate meetings with Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem and Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, who, “of course, also saw the permanent members and tried to convince them that the only solution is the one proposed by Mr Denktash.”
Denktash recently said the only way forward on the Cyprus problem was for “two sovereign states” on the island to enter into a confederal agreement. UN Security Council resolutions call for a bi-zonal bi-communal federation with a single sovereignty.
Answering a question on the S-300 missiles, Clerides noted that his address to the UN on the subject had included the phrase that “the delivery of the missiles will only be cancelled if negotiation starts and if the progress of the talks is jeopardised” by the deployment of the missiles.
And on rumours that the United States had prepared a proposal with Cyprus to scrap the missile deal, Clerides replied: “I also read that in the papers and it surprised me.”
He said nothing of the kind had been raised in his meetings, “either by (US State Department Cyprus co-ordinator Thomas) Miller or by (US presidential envoy Richard) Holbrooke.”
