Akel has always opposed post-solution guarantees, Kyprianou says

Opposition Akel leader Andros Kyprinaou said on Sunday his party believed there should be no guarantees as part of a Cyprus solution.
Kyprianou was speaking in Limassol where he had gone to campaign for the party’s incumbent mayor Andreas Christou ahead of the December municipal elections.

Asked by reporters to comment on an article in Phileleftheros on Sunday stating that Greece had a policy paper stating it opposed any guarantees for Cyprus, Kyprianou said

“For years Akel has insisted that an EU member country must not only not have guarantees, but the whole idea must be banished from thought,” he said.

Even when the party’s former leader Demetris Christofias was president and negotiating on the Cyprus issue, this was the policy with Greece, Kyprianou said.

He did however say there should be a short transition in terms of security “but certainly not with Turkish participation,” he said.
 Asked whether he would accompany President Nicos Anastasiades in November when he is expected to go abroad for talks on territory, the Akel leader said it would be up to the president if he wished to take the party leaders along.

He did not think it was a big issue as long as Anastasiades adhered to what was agreed at the national council and as long as he did not succumb to any pressures from outside players.

In any case he said he would seek a meeting with the president beforehand, aside from any new national council meeting because “we want to discuss more extensively some issues. ”