Moses says status quo unacceptable

By a Staff Reporter

U.S. PRESIDENT Bill Clinton’s special Cyprus envoy Alfred Moses has said the status quo on the island is unacceptable.

The American envoy was addressing Greek Americans in Washington on Wednesday.

He told them that the US and Clinton personally were committed to work for a solution based on a bi-zonal bi-communal federation.

Washington’s aim was to achieve a resumption of the Cyprus talks based on UN resolutions, Moses said, adding that substantial efforts were being made for the resumption of talks without preconditions under UN auspices.

Moses is due in Cyprus shortly to assess the climate for the resumption of talks which the Greek Cypriot side hoped would take place at the end of this month in New York.

UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan was expected to decide whether to issue invitations to the two sides following a crucial meeting in Washington between Clinton and Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit.

But instead of the US persuading Ankara to soften its stance on the return to talks, as originally hoped, Ecevit succeeded in linking the resumption of talks to the possible declaration of Turkey’s EU candidacy in December at the Helsinki summit.

The upcoming Moses visit to the region, to assess the situation with a view to Annan reaching a final decision on invitations, is seen as Clinton’s consolation prize to the bitterly disappointed Greek Cypriot side.

According to unconfirmed reports, Moses is due in Athens on October 17, in Ankara on October 18 and in Nicosia either on October 19 or 20. However a US embassy source told the Cyprus Mail they have not yet been informed of any fixed date for the visit. “It’s up to the White House to announce that,” the source said.

 

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.