De Soto has second meeting with Clerides

 

U.N. SPECIAL Envoy to Cyprus Alvaro de Soto met President Glafcos Clerides yesterday morning for the second time since flying in to the island on Wednesday.

They talked for an hour and 10 minutes over an 8am working breakfast at the Presidential Palace.

Asked how he felt his contacts were going, De Soto told reporters that since he hadn’t yet met Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, it was too early to comment.

Instead, he urged the two sides to show a spirit of co-operation in order to move settlement talks forward.

The UN Envoy lunches with Denktash today, the first of four timetabled meetings before his return to New York on September 5.

In addition, there are another four scheduled discussions with Clerides, following the initial two this week.

De Soto’s visit is being seen as a chance for the UN sponsored proximity talks to break out of nine months of deadlock.

The process has been stalled since Denktash abandoned negotiations over demands for political equality.

Denktash this week reiterated his support for a settlement based on a loose confederation between two states rather than the bi-communal, bi-zonal arrangement favoured by the government and the international community.

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