BRITAIN’s Special Representative for Cyprus yesterday said that, “we must all seek to find this new opportunity” regarding the Cyprus problem, “that will arise throughout the coming year, to grasp it with both hands and I think the prospects are bleak if we do not do that.”
House of Representatives President Demetris Christofias, whom Joan Ryan met in Nicosia, expressed hope that the British official would work towards creating the preconditions for the implementation of a UN-brokered agreement in July last year as soon as possible.
Ryan said that, “there will come an opportunity after the elections in Cyprus for everybody to really focus on this matter and that it is an opportunity that no one wishes to miss.
“I do not think that means that we have to sit from now till that point in time and do nothing,” she pointed out, adding that if an agreement was reached in the next couple of months “that will be very welcome indeed.”
She noted that, “we have all to keep working and we urge all political leaders in Cyprus to work together on the basis of the Gambari agreement to find that solution.”
She said that she was here to listen and to learn. “I am here to meet major interlocutors, political and community leaders. But most of all I am here to do what I can to support the UN process,” she noted.
Ryan said that “the longer the situation goes, on the more intractable it becomes,” adding: “During this visit therefore I want to explore what progress can be made and I want to discuss with grassroots groups what ordinary Cypriots can do and to promote increased dialogue, to build mutual understanding, to build communication.”
She noted that her appointment by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, “is a signal of how seriously he and the British government take the responsibilities as a guarantor power.
“We are very serious indeed about working with the UN, with Cypriots and with all those who seek the reunification of this island and making this reunification a reality.”
Christofias expressed certainty that Ryan would, “work with us to create the preconditions for the implementation of the agreement the soonest possible, in order to finally reach a solution based on UN principles and resolutions and high-level agreements, an agreement that will satisfy both communities.”
President Tassos Papadopoulos and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat agreed on July 8 last year during a meeting in Nicosia in the presence of UN official Ibrahim Gambari, to begin a process of bi-communal discussions on issues that affect the day-to-day life of the people and concurrently those that concern substantive issues, both contributing to a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem.
