UN seeks new ways to break the deadlock

De Soto to launch shuttle talks with time running out

THE UN said yesterday it was calling a halt to direct talks between the two leaders in Cyprus, switching to negotiating separately with the two sides, just one week before the deadline for an agreement.

President Tassos Papadopoulos and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash have been engaged in daily direct negotiations since February 19, under the chairmanship of UN envoy Alvaro de Soto, with the aim of reaching a deal by March 22.

However, three weeks of negotiations have produced little result, and the leaders have engaged in a daily blame game on the lack of progress, each saying the other was submitting unacceptable demands.

“At today’s meeting with the two leaders, Mr De Soto indicated he intended to begin a series of intensive consultations with each side separately,” UNFICYP spokesman Brian Kelly told the Cyprus News Agency.

He said that De Soto informed the leaders that he believed this was the best way to facilitate forward movement on the core issues “given the difficulties of formulating in the direct format a package of trade-offs to improve the plan.

“While this process is under way, there will not necessarily be daily meetings between the leaders, they will meet as necessary,” he added.
A give-and-take process had been due to begin at yesterday’s talks, but the gaps between the demands of the two sides are believed to be still too wide.
“Mr De Soto, realising it would not be possible to begin the horse trading process in view of the gulf between the two sides, asked us to draw up lists of all the changes we wish to see in the plan,” Denktash said after yesterday’s session.

“He says he might meet with us separately to ascertain whether or not we can begin trading off demands. We’ll try to present our list by Monday,” he added.

But Denktash stressed that separate meetings did not mean face-to-face negotiations would not resume. “We are constrained by a merciless timetable,” he said.

Papadopoulos said yesterday before meeting Denktash that there had been no progress at the talks.

“If you ask me whether there is progress or not, at least I at the negotiating table did not see any progress. I don’t know if Mr De Soto has other information from other sources,” he said.

“As far as we are concerned, this phase should have been the most important one of all three phases. Perhaps Mr Denktash is looking forward to the second phase of the talks,” he told journalists after yesterday’s meeting.

If the leaders to not reach an agreement by March 22, guarantor powers Greece and Turkey are to enter the negotiation on March 24 at talks in Switzerland. If that effort fails UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan will fill in the blanks. The plan will then go to separate referenda on April 20 so that a united Cyprus can join the EU on May 1.

There has been speculation that Denktash, who is known to oppose the Annan plan, has been stringing out the talks until Turkey joins in.

Papadopoulos said yesterday he wanted to see progress that would mean the least possible contribution necessary to the next phase.

“We are trying to achieve progress, bridge the differences, at least on issues we consider important, so that the next phases of the negotiations will have as little involvement as possible in finalising the plan,” he said.

He did, however, express the Greek Cypriot side’s willingness to participate in the Swiss talks. The President travels today to Athens for contacts with Greece’s newly-elected Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, Greek President Costis Stephanopoulos, and party leaders.
Yesterday, echoing comments from new Greek Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said: “I hope the two sides solve their problems and do not leave it to us (Greece and Turkey).
“There are good intentions on both sides. If there’s a will there’s a way,” Gul told Greek television.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen was also upbeat. “I think the glass is a bit more than half full… The probability that we will have a unified Cyprus in the EU on May 1 is greater than the probability that we will have to admit a divided state,” he told Germany’s ARD television.

But a commentary in the mainland Turkish Daily News said there were doubts that prospects would be any brighter when Turkey and Greece joined the talks on March 24. “It’s very likely that the four sides will prefer that the UN Secretary-general steps in and fill in the blanks in the Cyprus plan, and become the scapegoat,” the paper said.