UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan has said it’s time for the two sides in Cyprus to resume contacts leading to negotiations for a comprehensive settlement.
The comment came on Tuesday night, two days after parliamentary elections on the island resulted in a vote of confidence in President Tassos Papadopoulos who called on Greek Cypriots to reject Annan’s reunification plan in 2004 in referendum.
Annan made his comment in his report to the Security Council recommending the renewal of the UN peace keeping force in Cyprus UNFICYP for another six months from June 15.
Although the report has not been officially released and may not be made public until the weekend, it says that in the absence of a plan acceptable to both sides, the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus “continues to be necessary”.
Annan recommended a six-month extension, until Dec. 15.
“At this juncture, it is important for the parties to resume contacts and to begin to think about how to re-engage in the search for a comprehensive settlement to the Cyprus problem,” Annan said in the report.
Annan plans to send his Cyprus-based special representative, Michael Moller, to Greece and Turkey to assess the prospects for a resumption of UN-backed negotiation s, he said.
In March this year Turkey rejected Moller’s request for a visit, saying it feared he was biased in favour of the Greek Cypriots.
Meanwhile yesterday Russia’s Foreign Ministry’s Special Representative for Cyprus Leonid Abramov has said the UN role in efforts to solve the Cyprus problem should be further strengthened within the framework of the Security Council five permanent members.
Russia has not changed and will not change its principled position on Cyprus, he said.
Abramov, who is on a visit to the island yesterday met AKEL general-secretary Demetris Christofias.
The US also weighed in on the Cyprus issue yesterday saying there should be a peaceful solution in Cyprus based on the Annan plan.
Acting Spokesman of the US State Department Tom Casey said he did not want to comment on Sunday’s elections that in the words of the reporter asking, had strengthened “the political forces that opposed the Annan plan” .
”In terms of our policy towards Cyprus, though, US policy remains the same on that. We continue to believe that there should be a peaceful resolution to the disputes on the island using the Annan plan’s basis,” Casey said.
In Athens Finland’s Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, after meeting with his Greek counterpart Dora Bakoyanni, that dealing with the Cyprus issue would be the EU’s “most demanding problem” over the next six months. Finland will take over the EU presidency in July.
“We hope that we could perhaps achieve some significant progress during our presidency,” said Tuomioja. “On the other hand, there is the possibility for some sort of crisis in the situation but we want to avoid that,” he told reporters after the two diplomats met in Helsinki.
Bakoyanni said the United Nations was responsible for finding a solution in Cyprus.
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