Iacovou: ‘We need a tranquil atmosphere for talks’

PRESIDENTIAL Commissioner George Iacovou has said he hopes the UN sponsored talks between President Christofias and Turkish Cypriot Leader Mehmet Ali Talat will resume next week.

Speaking on German radio, Iacovou said that there was considerable tension after Greek Cypriot pilgrims, who were scheduled to cross into the north, returned citing delays by Turkish Cypriot authorities in permitting them to enter.

“I think the atmosphere was very charged, the atmosphere we require for the talks is one of tranquility, one of understanding and we thought this did’nt prevail and we thought we both need time to reach that tranquil atmosphere – so we said we would postpone that meeting,” he told Deutsche Welle.

Iacovou said he hoped checkpoint fiasco would not cast a shadow on reunification talks that were scheduled to re-start yesterday, and assured that negotiations would start again soon.

“I hope and believed the incident will not affect the talks in a negative way, as regards the time of postponement, I can’t say for sure, it won’t be too long, I would guess it would be one week.”

The commissioner said that the UN-led negotiations, which started last September, were proceeding well, but much more worked had to be accomplished in the coming months.

“I would say some progress has been made, not as much as we wanted or expected, and we still have a lot of work to do in order to reach an agreement. I think there is more work ahead of us than there is behind us.”

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.