A U.N. spokesman yesterday stopped short of saying a new Cyprus initiative might be in the works as a result of President Tassos Paapadopoulos’ meeting with Secretary-general Kofi Annan on February 28 in Paris.
Speaking to reporters in New York, Annan’s spokesman Stephan Dujarric said both men would review the situation in Cyprus and discuss ways of moving forward.
“The meeting in Paris should be seen as his continued consultations on the issue of Cyprus and of moving forward the process of reuniting Cyprus and that’s as far we can go right now,” he said.
Annan has held off on launching a new Cyprus initiative since the failed referendum on his reunification plan in 2004. He has repeatedly said he would not kick off a new round of negotiations until he saw that both sides were ready and until he felt new talks might lead somewhere.
“The agenda is that they both agreed to meet and the agenda as I’ve stated is to review the situation in Cyprus and to discuss ways of moving forward the process of reuniting Cyprus,” Dujarric said.
Commenting on the recent Turkish proposals on the Cyprus issue Annan’s spokesman added: ”There’s a lot of studying being done.”
In Nicosia Undersecretary to the President Christocoulos Pashardis said the Papadooulos-Annan meeting would be seeking effective ways to prepare the ground for a new effort.
“The aim of the meeting is to examine and assess effective ways for the preparation of the ground for the resumption of a new effort on behalf of the United Nations, so that substantive talks will be held with the aim of having serious prospects of success,” he said.
“The President is ready not only to listen to Mr Annan but also to submit certain suggestions towards this direction”.
Pashardis said the meeting in Paris was the result of behind-the-scenes contacts Papadopoulos has had recently with the UN, and took a swipe at the President’s detractors by adding that Papadopoulos has not been inactive on the Cyprus issue as his critics have suggested.
Commenting on US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s statements that Washington was working hard for a resolution in Cyprus and that the objective was to return to time of the Annan plan, Pashardis said: “Then we should reiterate that we are pursuing substantive changes and not decorative amendments to the rejected Annan plan.”
On Wednesday, responding to questions at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the discussion of the “President’s Budget for Foreign Affairs”, Rice said that the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus was not included in the 2007 fiscal requests, but if it became necessary to continue the mission, the US would find a way to meet the obligation.
Asked by Senator Paul Sarbanes why she assumed the mission would be terminated in 2007, Rice expressed the belief that a lot was changing politically as far as that obligation was concerned “including Cyprus’ incorporation into the European Union”.
“We are working very hard now to get back to where we were a year ago, which was at the time of the Annan plan, with which I know there were some disagreements, to actually resolve this conflict. Should there be need for continued peacekeeping there, we’ll meet the obligation”, she said.
