UN special envoy Alexander Downer yesterday told reporters…with an almost straight face: “It’s one of those situations. Three courses, two courses in one restaurant and one in the other but the one in the other will be very substantial. The two will be smaller courses so it will all be perfectly symmetrical and fair.”
Downer was referring to the dinner tonight the two leaders will have in Pyla.
His comments initially led us to all sorts of bash patriotic thoughts on whether the meal plan was designed based on proportional representation or whether the “substantial” meal was to be held in the Greek Cypriot or Turkish Cypriot restaurant.
It was later clarified that both sides were hosting the meal in a Greek Cypriot restaurant in the centre of the mixed Greek and Turkish Cypriot village. Then the leaders and the UN negotiating team will travel a kilometre to a Turkish Cypriot restaurant for coffee.
Mentioning this at all may sound trite and possibly amusing but many a true word are spoken in jest and clearly indicates some level of frustration with the constant petty brinkmanship that is the hallmark of the Cyprus issue, and the fact that things are not going well at all.
More than three years down the line the two leaders are nowhere near a solution. President Christofias was yesterday quoted as saying that going to New York for the Greentree Two talks will be meaningless unless some progress is achieved.
Eroglu meanwhile is making plans to change the name of the ‘TRNC’ if there’s no solution by the end of June as if this will somehow make the breakaway regime less illegal.
All these tit-for-tat negative comments are helping no one. And if Downer’s other comments yesterday are to be taken seriously, the process is fast running out of time. Downer made it quite clear that there were no plans for a Greentree Three. If the leaders do not converge on the core issues at the end of this month, he said there would be a “complete deadlock”.
Downer sees no reason why they can’t, saying the process was not something “that is a function of time” but something “which is a function of politics and decision-making”. In other words, as has been said many times before; if the two leaders want to reach an agreement, they can.
He is correct. But as long as each side continues to play musical chairs – whether it be in two separate restaurants or at the negotiating table – a viable solution is destined to remain elusive and Greentree Two will call a halt to the current process.
If that happens all we can look forward to is a summer of heightened tensions as the gas exploration heats up, and the EU presidency arrives on our doorstep.
