By Athena Karsera
HOUSE President Spyros Kyprianou yesterday sowed further confusion in his row with US ambassador Kenneth Brill, saying President Clerides would summon the ambassador to discuss the issue on Monday.
The government, however, refused to confirm any such meeting was planned and sought to play down the affair.
Kyprianou’s Diko and communist party Akel are angry over US embassy letters apparently critical of their opposition to Nato’s bombing of Yugoslavia. The House President is also piqued at Brill’s alleged refusal to discuss the issue with him when he was acting president during Clerides’ absence in China.
Yesterday, Kyprianou told reporters, after seeing Clerides to convey party leader’s views on the matter, that the President had summoned Ambassador Brill to a meeting on Monday.
But a few hours later, Government Spokesman Costas Serezis refused to confirm what Kyprianou had said.
Serezis merely said the President was contemplating what he would do — if he decided to intervene — and when would be the best time to do so.
Earlier, Kyprianou had said: “The President of the Republic, as he told me, has already taken a decision to take steps towards Brill, whom he will call on Monday.”
He also said that Clerides would lay emphasis on the fact that Brill had refused to meet with Kyprianou as acting President.
“In particular, the President, without me wanting to say anything more on his involvement in the issue because I am not entitled to do so, will give emphasis on the fact that the Ambassador of the US refused to meet with the acting President of the Republic.”
Kyprianou also criticised deputies who had not agreed to pass a full resolution condemning the American ambassador’s behaviour, opting instead in favour of a lighter-weight statement.
The House president indicated Disy deputies were the main objectors to a stronger resolution: “Only Disy did not want a resolution issued.”
“The contents of the statement (that was finally approved) represented the opinions of everyone,” he added.
Kyprianou said the furore was something unprecedented in Cyprus.
“The parties once again yesterday put emphasis on the issue of the ambassador’s refusal to meet the acting President.
“Personally and as House president, I will do what I think is right to protect the functioning of the Republic connected to the relationships of embassies and parties.”
When asked if Clerides’ meeting with Brill on Monday would close this issue, he replied, “We shall see.”
Serezis, however, refused to confirm or deny what Kyprianou had said. The spokesman said he had spoken on the phone with Clerides after the President’s meeting with Kyprianou.
He told reporters he was only authorised to say that the President would consider what he had been told and what he would do.
“I neither confirm nor deny Kyprianou’s statements. All I can announce to you is that the President is thinking about how he will intervene in the issue.”
The government spokesman did say that Clerides did not agree with Kyprianou’s opinion that Brill should be declared a persona non grataon the island: “Kyprianou said it… Clerides did not say it.”
When asked if the issue would cause problems with the relationship between Cyprus and US, Serezis said he did not believe so because the issue had not been taken up on a government level.
Media speculation had earlier suggested the spat could threaten to undermine Washington’s autumn push to restart Cyprus settlement talks.
When asked if the government considered Brill’s alleged refusal to meet Kyprianou a breach of protocol, Serezis said: “Brill, as far as I know, did not refuse to have a meting with the House President. He did not refuse, he just could not meet with him at exactly that time.”
Disy president Nicos Anastassiades said yesterday the issue should be closed: “I have publicly said, even before the affected parties made their statements, that I do not believe we can achieve what we want to by keeping the issue open and to try to grapple with an Ambassador who is already on his way out.”
Brill is coming to the end of his posting in Cyprus, and a replacement has already been named.
Speaking on CyBC radio, Anastassiades added: “The less said (on the issue) in the future, the better, not because we are afraid, but because every issue has an end.”
He said he believed the American side had learned from the issue, so no further action should be taken.
But Akel’s press representative Nicos Katsourides sought to stoke up the issue. He said Brill had “interfered” with domestic politics in the past: “from the day he arrived, he has interfered in interior and foreign policies in Cyprus in much the same way as America did after the Second World War in several countries.”
He cited by way of example statements by Brill that Cyprus should not deploy the controversial Russian-made S-300 missiles.
