By Jean Christou
GREEK government spokesman Demetris Reppas yesterday glossed over the Athens-Nicosia rift over the S-300 missiles, saying in Nicosia that it was not the crux of the Cyprus problem.
Reppas was on the island for a one-day fence-mending visit, which comes after disagreement over the fate of the missiles between President Clerides and Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis at a key Athens meeting late last month.
Simitis is understood to favour a Cretan deployment for the missiles, an idea said to have come from the Americans, but Clerides insisted he would fulfil his election promise to bring them to Cyprus.
Although he avoided any mention of the rift yesterday, Reppas said no one could overturn a decision of the National Council on the deployment of the S-300s.
“Cyprus is a state that has the same rights as any other member state of the UN,” Reppas said after a meeting with President Clerides.
“It is not a state with reduced rights. It has a complete right to its own defence, and within this it can go ahead with deploying the S-300s.”
However, he said Cyprus and its citizens must not think the supply and deployment of the missiles was the centre of the Cyprus issue.
“It is only one part of the issues that concern the Cyprus problem,” he said.
He said Cyprus and Greece had to take the initiative on the Cyprus problem and choose on which field to fight.
“This field should not be one of armaments, heightening tensions and confrontation,” he said. “It should be the field of developing welfare, the field of respect for human rights and communications.”
Reppas said a solution would mean brave decisions from both sides, adding that Cyprus had already shown the way with the government’s demilitarisation proposal. He said moves on the part of the US were also a cause for optimism.
After his meeting with House President Spyros Kyprianou, Reppas said he hoped Cyprus would follow the path of justice, logic, reason and morality on the Cyprus problem.
This path would involve choosing the welfare of Cypriot Hellenism and the reduction of tensions in the area.
The US has said it is willing to consider almost any alternative to the Russian S-300 missiles being deployed on Cyprus and is understood to be actively involved in efforts to find a way out on the issue.
It believes the arrival of the missiles in Cyprus will complicate demilitarisation proposals and UN efforts to reach a political settlement.
But Clerides said on Sunday that the decision to deploy the missiles still stood unless the conditions – demilitarisation or substantial political negotiations – set by the government were satisfied.
“I firmly believe the strategy on the national problem, the accession course (EU) and our defence is correct,” Clerides said.
“If we suddenly altered our strategy on all the issues that I have mentioned, the Cyprus problem would plunge back into a protracted stalemate and would cast Cypriot Hellenism into uncertainty and insecurity.”
