Cassoulides in Moscow talks

FOREIGN Minister Ioannis Cassoulides flew to Moscow yesterday for five days of talks with the Kremlin to discuss efforts to solve the Cyprus problem and the latest tentative move towards peace.

As a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, Russia has always advocated a solution to the island’s division within the framework of UN resolutions.

Speaking at Larnaca airport before flying out, Cassoulides said he was convinced that Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash would restart the talks following his meeting with UN Secretary-general Kofi Anan in Salzburg yesterday. The international community hopes that negotiations will begin again in New York on September 8 or 9.

Cassoulides said there would be “some cosmetic changes but no changes of substance in the peace process”.

The UN resolutions commit participants to no preconditions, all issues on the table, full consideration of relevant resolutions and treaties and an honest approach to continuing the talks until a settlement is reached.

Reflecting the optimism that negotiations will begin again next month, UN Special Adviser for Cyprus Alvaro de Soto arrives today to initiate a series of contacts with Denktash and President Glafcos Clerides.

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.