U.N. Secretary-general Kofi Annan will be actively involved in the proximity talks on a day-to-day basis when he arrives in Geneva today.
The Deputy UN Spokesman in Geneva, Jamel ben Yahmed, made the announcement yesterday while briefing reporters on the talks, which wrap up this weekend. Yahmed said Annan would remain in Geneva until Saturday morning, when he leaves for Qatar for the Islamic Conference.
“He will participate in the talks,” Yahmed said, but added no final programme had yet been drawn up. Asked to comment on reports that Annan would make a statement or a move on the course of the talks, Yahmed said he did not have such information.
“We have to wait until he arrives here and takes part in these talks, and then we will see what he is going to do,” he said.
Meanwhile, the talks continued yesterday under the direction of UN special envoy Alvaro de Soto, who met President Glafcos Clerides early in the day. Speaking after the hour-long meeting, Clerides said: “We continued the discussion on issues of powers and competences”.
Clerides said he would be meeting Annan this afternoon. Asked if De Soto had given him any new non-papers or ideas, Clerides said: “No, we are still discussing”. Outgoing US President Bill Clinton’s bi-monthly report on Cyprus was also issued yesterday.
In the report, Clinton said the United States had remained steadfast in its efforts to bring about a negotiated Cyprus settlement based on a bizonal, bicommunal federation. Clinton said that he had conveyed the views of the American government to Turkish President Ahmed Sezer during a meeting at the United Nations Millennium Summit, emphasising the importance of a just and lasting solution for all Cypriots.
He added that Secretary of State Madeline Albright “delivered a similar message to her Greek and Turkish counterparts during the United Nations General Assembly and that Special Presidential Emissary Alfred Moses, Special Cyprus Coordinator Thomas Weston and US Ambassador to Cyprus Donald Bandler continued to provide diplomatic support to the UN-sponsored proximity talks in July and early August in Geneva and again in September in New York. “The UN reports that this process has taken ‘a qualitative step forward’, the report said.
