Proximity talks for April?

PROXIMITY talks on the Cyprus problem to define the procedure and contents of negotiations could start as early as April, Foreign Minister George Iakovou said yesterday.

“We should make sure that any initiative would lead to success,” Iakovou said.
He added: “We cannot not have a good framework for talks and that would not be prepared by Cyprus, or Mr (Mehmet Ali) Talat or the UN Secretary-general on his own, (but it will be done) through consultations, maybe proximity talks from the start.”

The Foreign Minister suggested that proximity talks could start as early as April and dismissed Talat’s readiness to ask the UN for a new initiative as a firework.

But UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan’s spokesman Fred Eckhard repeated that the UN expected “from the Greek Cypriots to put in writing the changes they wanted on the plan”.

According to Greek diplomatic sources, however, talks could restart after the Turkish Cypriot elections on April 17.

Other reports, however, suggest Annan had not taken any final decision on what to do concerning the Cyprus problem, though diplomatic sources insisted that he would be dispatching an envoy to sound out intentions in Athens, Ankara and Nicosia, after April 17.

At the same time, the UN has not yet taken a stance regarding the Greek Cypriot side’s refusal to have a refereeing role for Annan and set timeframes in any new procedure.
Speaking after meeting Annan on Tuesday, Greek Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis said he had conveyed his assertion that it was the view of all interested sides to restart the procedure to find a solution that would lead to the reunification of the island.

He added that negotiations should have the Annan plan as a basis.

“This time it is very important to ascertain there would not be a new failure and that the procedure would arrive to a positive result,” Molyviatis said.

Eckhard said the UN Secretary-general wanted to make sure that there was solid ground before restarting the talks, because he did not want another failure.

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