Clerides seeks to smooth over Kyprianou-Brill feud

THE FEUD between House president Spyros Kyprianou and US ambassador Kenneth Brill yesterday took a step towards conclusion, when President Clerides assured Kyprianou that Brill in no way meant to offend him.

Speaking to reporters after an early afternoon meeting with Clerides, Kyprianou said the President told him that “Brill said that it was not his intention to infringe on the institution of the acting President, either in its capacity as a position or personally.”

Kyprianou said Brill had given Clerides the assurances after the President on Monday “made the required representations on the infringement of Cyprus’ institutions.”

Problems between the ambassador and Kyprianou began earlier this month when Brill allegedly refused to meet with the House president, who was acting President at the time.

Clerides was on a state visit to China when Kyprianou requested a meeting with Brill to protest against American embassy criticism of his Diko party and communist Akel’s anti-Nato rhetoric. Both parties claimed the comments were an unacceptable interference in Cyprus’ domestic politics.

Kyprianou said “the President spoke to Brill about the necessity of smooth relations with all the parties and I believe that after this discussion… all that was necessary has been done.”

He added the entire incident had not been the result of a policy decision in Washington, but had come out of Nicosia so it was better that a representation had been made rather than sterner action taken.

Kyprianou said he would discuss yesterday’s meeting with party leaders in the next few days and that the issue would then finally be closed.

Kyprianou said last week that Brill’s refusal to meet with him was a snub not only to him but to the island as a whole. He added he would have declared Brill a persona non grataif he had been president.

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.