After a three-hour long meeting, the National Council yesterday unanimously welcomed President Glafcos Clerides` decision to accept Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash’s invitation for face-to-face talks in Nicosia on December 4.
Speaking after the council meeting, Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou said decisions had been taken in view of next week’s encounter between the two leaders, but he did not elaborate.
The council outlined the positions and tactics that the Greek Cypriot side would follow at the meeting and exchanged views on general policy with regard to the Cyprus question, he said.
Papapetrou noted that neither Clerides` or Denktash’s aides would be present at the meeting. Only the two politicians and the UN Secretary- General’s Special Advisor on Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto – who arrives on the island December 2 – would attend, he added.
The spokesman said the National Council would convene again on December 18 and 19, when members would be briefed on the outcome of the meeting. In response to questions, Papapetrou said that Turkish threats to annex the north of the island, should Cyprus join the EU prior to a political settlement, had also discussed at yesterday’s meeting and would be raised again.
Commenting on next week’s visit to Ankara by the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, Papapetrou said according to Turkish sources, the Cyprus problem would be raised with Turkish officials. ” All these discussions on Cyprus at various levels, involving UN, American and EU officials, show that what we have been pursuing has put the Cyprus problem on the international agenda and is now yielding results,”Papapetrou said.
US Ambassador, Bandler during a visit to the Cyprus Workers’ Confederation (SEK) yesterday, echoed Papapetrou’s views with regard to the December 4 meeting.
” It is our hope that the two leaders will use this meeting to overcome existing differences and to find ways to accommodate one another’s concerns to advance the possibility of a settlement that will bring economic, political and security benefits all across the island of Cyprus,”he said, adding that the US was working very closely with the UN to find a solution in Cyprus.
The December 4 meeting will be the first face-to-face meeting between Clerides and Denktash since August 1997. They were both engaged in UN proximity talks from December 1999 to November last year, when Denktash, backed by Ankara, withdrew from the negotiations.
In September, Denktash turned down an invitation from UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan to resume the stalled talks on the Cyprus problem, reiterating his demand for recognition. Clerides accepted the invitation and expressed his readiness to work for a comprehensive settlement.
