Blair rejects Denktash confederation plan

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair has rejected the Turkish Cypriot’s side’s proposal for a confederation in Cyprus.

Blair also said the Cyprus problem could only be solved through peaceful dialogue and stressed that Britain would continue to work actively for a resumption of the UN-led intercommunal talks.

“The British government is committed to using the UK’s unique position as a guarantor power, a permanent member of the UN Security Council and as a member of the European Union to do all it can to assist the people of Cyprus to achieve a just settlement on the island,” Blair said in a latter to Haris Sophoclides, President of the World Federation of Overseas Cypriots.

“It is only through peaceful dialogue that the division of the island can be ended,” Blair said, urging all sides to “refrain from acts of violence and aggression and to co-operate fully with the UN”.

Referring to the Turkish Cypriot proposal for a confederation in Cyprus, Blair said: “We have made it clear that a confederation of separate sovereign states is not consistent with the objective of a bicommunal bizonal federation agreed by both communities in the 1977 and 1979 High Level Agreements and set out in the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions.”

He said both the UN Security Council and the international community “have repeatedly endorsed the UN Secretary-general’s efforts to promote negotiations aiming at a bizonal, bicommunal federation”.

“The UK continues to work actively in conjunction with the international partners in support of UN efforts to bring about a resumption of negotiations between the two parties on that basis,” Blair said.

The British Prime Minister also said his government and its EU partners had made it clear that the accession of Cyprus to the EU should benefit both communities, reinforce efforts towards a settlement and help bring about peace and reconciliation.

He also expressed Britain’s desire to see a reduction of tensions in the Aegean between Greece and Turkey.

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.