THE OPENING of the Limnitis crossing in the northwest of the island will likely be pushed back by a month, a senior government official has said.
Speaking from Paphos after a memorial service Sunday, Presidential Commissioner George Iacovou said the timetable given by the UN Development Programme-Partnership for the Future (UNDP-PFF), the UN body overseeing the project, was “not feasible.”
During an inspection of the road project by Iacovou and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Kudret Ozersay back in June, both sides had said they were “pleasantly surprised” with the progress, and early September was mooted as the conclusion of the works.
“I believe that work is ongoing everywhere and that by late September to early October the road should be ready,” Iacovou said on Sunday.
He did not elaborate on the cause of this latest delay.
The checkpoint road under construction is 5.7 km long of which 1.9 km falls within the buffer zone and the remaining 3.8 km through the Turkish occupied area. The US government and the EU are among the contributors to the financing of the project with the cost being put at €4.4m.
A ceremony marking the project’s launch at the remote Tylliria area in the northwest was held in March in the presence of President Demetris Christofias and former Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.
At the time it was hailed as a positive development that raised hopes for the end of the isolation of residents who have to travel via Paphos to get to Nicosia. Once open, the crossing is expected to cut travel time from the area to the capital by two thirds.
Following the deal on Limnitis – after much back and forth – the project is finally picking up steam despite hitting a series of snags. Disagreements arose over the width of the road, and later the Greek Cypriot side claimed the Turkish army was not issuing passes to the workers through a military area.
On the Cyprus talks in general, Iacovou said that, contrary to popular perception, President Christofias is not opposed to the holding of an international conference.
There are two points regarding the international conference, Iacovou said. The first has to do with the composition of the conference, he said, stressing that “certainly we will not accept an international conference, which either downgrades the Republic of Cyprus or upgrades the breakaway regime”.
Secondly, the international conference would focus on the international aspects of the Cyprus problem, such as the issue of guarantees.
President Christofias has dismissed calls for such a conference, saying he will not “undermine” the Republic of Cyprus by accepting the two communities as having equal status at an international gathering.
He has instead proposed a conference that includes representatives of the guarantor powers, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the EU, the Cyprus Republic and the two communities.
