U.S. State Department Cyprus co-ordinator Thomas Miller arrives on the island this afternoon for a 24-hour visit.
The US Embassy yesterday confirmed that Miller would arrive on the island at 2.40pm.
The US official will meet with UN permanent Representative Dame Ann Hercus, in a meeting expected to focus on security issues.
According to sources quoted by CyBC, Miller is coming in an effort to “evaluate the situation as far as Hercus’ efforts are concerned”.
Hercus began shuttle talks between the two sides in mid-October.
Miller will leave on Friday for meetings in Athens, before travelling to Istanbul for a meeting with Cypriot, Greek and Turkish businessmen.
The Istanbul meeting will also be attended by US Presidential Emissary on Cyprus, Richard Holbrooke, who is also to visit Athens next week.
A US embassy spokesman said Holbrooke was not scheduled to come to Nicosia, though he said such a visit could not be ruled out.
Visits to Nicosia by Miller have in the past laid the groundwork for Holbrooke to step in.
Holbrooke’s latest efforts are thought to be aimed at finding a way to enable Cyprus not to deploy the controversial Russian S-300 missiles ordered by Cyprus.
The US, Britain and other EU countries have all voiced opposition to the missiles’ arrival in Cyprus, and even Greece is understood to prefer a compromise deployment in Crete.
Turkey has threatened military action against the missiles if they ever come to Cyprus.
But speaking yesterday on his departure for Vienna, where he is to attend an EU summit, President Glafcos Clerides said Cyprus was not looking for “excuses” not to deploy the missiles.
The National Council decision to deploy the S-300s still stood, he said, as conditions for their postponement had not been met.
“They (the US) have not made a proposal, neither have we asked them to make a proposal, nor are we looking for excuses,” the President said.
He repeated that only if talks for a Cyprus settlement or talks about demilitarisation were well under way would the government consider the non- deployment of the missiles. Asked if support for the demilitarisation idea in the expected renewal of Unficyp’s mandate this month would be enough, he said it would not.
He disagreed with the position expressed on Tuesday by German envoy Detlev Graf Zu Rantzau that the S-300s would not be sufficient for the island’s defence, saying “Cyprus can defend itself and should defend itself if there is a new aggressive act.”
Clerides also said that the media had blown the missile issue out of all proportion.
“The Americans and the Europeans told us their thoughts on this issue long ago, but it is very wrong to believe that we discuss the missiles every day.” he said.
Chief EU negotiator George Vassiliou said yesterday there was no connection between the S-300s and the EU accession, though he added that some countries which had originally presented the Cyprus problem as an obstacle to the island’s accession were now using the missiles to back up their argument.
