By Jean Christou
U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL Kofi Annan will not issue invitations for direct talks if there is a chance they may fail, his new envoy and Unficyp Chief of Mission said yesterday.
Speaking after his first meeting with President Clerides, Chilean diplomat James Holger said the timing of the talks was very important and did not rule out the possibility that they would be held at the beginning of next year, and not this autumn as had originally been thought.
The Greek Cypriot side had hoped invitations for talks might be issued this month, but Turkey is trying to have negotiations delayed until the EU summit in Helsinki in December when it hopes to secure candidacy to the bloc.
Ankara has hinted it may soften its stance on Cyprus if candidacy is assured.
Holger, who has taken over in an acting capacity in the role of special envoy and Unficyp chief until a permanent representative is appointed, said the EU summit and the OSCE meeting in Istanbul next month would both have a bearing on the Cyprus problem.
“If Annan has not called for talks already, it is because he does not want to schedule talks, to initiate a new round of talks just for the sake of doing so,” Holger told reporters after his meeting with Clerides.
“In other words he wants the talks to succeed”.
Holger said he had come to Cyprus with no specific instructions from the Secretary-general because consultations were under way aimed at re-energising the negotiating process.
“There is intensive movement aimed at having talks convene before the end of the year,” Holger said, but he added that “we should be realistic” and not expect the talks to take place this year, “but shortly afterwards”.
“The idea is to keep the negotiating momentum going,” Holger said, adding that Annan did not wish to convene talks that were likely to fail.
“Since this has happened in the past, it is fair to say it could happen again. The ground has to be prepared for talks to be convened and to take off and the timing of talks is a very important element.”
Holger said there were several options open for the talks, including shuttle talks, proximity talks and direct negotiations, and called for people to be “imaginative”.
He warned there were many obstacles preventing the talks from taking place and said the negotiating process would be long because the Cyprus question was not an easy one.
