PRESIDENT Christofias may have gone to Geneva in a defiant mood, insisting that he would not accept artificial time-frames, UN arbitration and an international conference, but he returned to Cyprus defeated and humiliated. His three ‘nos’, which newspapers reported he would have told the UN Secretary-General, were not uttered in Geneva or if they were, Ban Ki-moon ignored them.
He had persuaded Ban not to set any deadline for the conclusion of the talks during their previous meetings, but this time he did not succeed. Ban’s statement after yesterday’s meeting was quite impressive in its forcefulness. While adhering to diplomatic language, Ban illustrated a new-found determination to get results, not at some unspecified time in the future, but by October when the “leaders will be able to report that they have reached convergence on all issues and we will meet that month in New York”.
There was also the veiled threat that “this will take the Cyprus negotiations close to their conclusion and would allow me to give a positive report to the Security Council on the matter”. In the event there was no convergence on all issues by October we would still be close to the conclusion of the talks and presumably he would have to give the Security Council a negative report. The international conference would be convened in order to iron out the last remaining differences, assuming there was convergence on all core issues.
Both leaders, Ban said, had agreed to “an enhanced UN involvement” in the negotiations. While he accepted the principle of Cypriot-owned negotiations, he had obviously come to the conclusion that without UN mediation and submission of bridging proposals, the two leaders could have ownership of the talks for another 10 years without agreeing on anything. It is not arbitration, but the enhanced involvement offers the UN a much more active role in the procedure.
In Geneva, Ban introduced a much-needed sense of urgency and a greater focus to talks that were going nowhere. Christofias and Eroglu agreed to “significantly intensify negotiations”. We do not know how the Turkish Cypriot side will react to the news from Geneva, but the Greek Cypriots, who expected no surprises from Ban, will be up in arms about the October deadline, the international conference and UN involvement in the talks. It will not be the ideal climate for Christofias to follow Ban’s advice and “renew hope and enthusiasm for a solution”.
Then again, nobody will force us to agree to a settlement that we find unacceptable. What we need to accept is that the UN’s involvement in the Cyprus problem would end for good if there is no deal this year. As Ban warned, by October the Cyprus talks would be “close to their conclusion”, one way or the other.
