Downer still undecided on Cyprus job

FORMER Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer is still undecided on whether to take up a position with the United Nations as a Special Envoy for Cyprus or stay in local politics, he said.

Last month it was revealed that Downer was in discussions with the UN as a possible UN Special Envoy for Cyprus.

He described the news leak as ”unfortunate” but not serious, adding that discussions about the job were still ongoing.

”If they decide they want me to do a job for them, then I’ll decide one way or the other then,” Downer told the Nine Network.

”It is only a part-time job. That’s the first thing. It’s not a full-time job and secondly, yes intellectually it would be very interesting,” he remarked.

He said the Cyprus problem had remained unresolved since 1974. “But that, of course, illustrates the point: it’s a very difficult and complex issue to resolve,” he said.

The former Australian diplomat said his taking up the job was a possibility for him, “but I’m sure they’ll be considering other people as well,” he added.

There has been no UN special envoy for Cyprus since Peruvian diplomat Alvaro de Soto left the post in 2004 after Greek Cypriots rejected the Annan plan.

Taye-Brook Zerihoun, the UN Special Representative in Cyprus said last week the procedure at the UN is to identify possible candidates for the Cyprus job, and contacting them to find out if they were available was under way.

He confirmed one of the people that had been approached was Downer.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.