Diplomatic office for the president

By a Staff Reporter

THE CABINET yesterday approved the creation of a diplomatic office for President Tassos Papadopoulos independent of the Foreign Ministry.

The new office will be headed by Tassos Tzonis, the current Director of the Cyprus desk at the Foreign Ministry and the ambassador to Lebanon. The new position also makes Tzonis the political head of the Cyprus Secret Service (KYP).

Speaking after yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said the new service would liaise between the President and the Foreign Ministry on meetings with foreign government representatives and embassies.

Chrysostomides said that although the post of KYP’s political chief was being transferred to the new office, the posts of Commander, and Vice- Commander of the Service would remain as they were, held by police officers.

Tzionis’ assistant will be Marios Lyssiotis, who will also be seconded to KYP. Lyssiotis is also a career diplomat.

Senior sources at the Foreign Ministry yesterday denied that the new move was a vote of no confidence in its activities or that the ministry’s role was being undermined.

“These sorts of offices exist everywhere and they are not seen as undermining the Foreign Ministry,” the source said. He added that previous governments had not deemed it necessary to branch out in this way, but now that Cyprus was on the brink of joining the EU, Papadopoulos would be expected to participate in the EU Council and the reform was seen as necessary.

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.