UN Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide said on Friday he had called a halt to shuttle diplomacy between the two leaders as both sides began engaging in the blame game.
“Without a prospect for common ground, there is no basis for continuing this shuttle diplomacy,” Eide said in a short announcement.
The special envoy said he had met the two leaders separately on Friday morning, and then met the ambassadors of the five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council in a joint meeting. He would now inform the Secretary-General and seek his advice on the way forward, he said.
Over the last nine days, following the May 17 leaders’ meeting, Eide said he had been engaged in active shuttle diplomacy between the two sides as requested by the leaders.
“As both leaders have publicly expressed their desire to reconvene the Conference on Cyprus and to finalise all outstanding issues in Geneva, our sole focus has been to agree the modalities by which this can be achieved,” he said. “Unfortunately, despite serious efforts to overcome their differences regarding the modalities for meeting in Geneva, the leaders were unable to find common ground.”
The Cyprus Mail understands that the modalities he was referring to were related to a modification President Nicos Anastasiades had made to his initial proposal, which was originally to discuss guarantees and security first in Geneva, followed by territory, and then the differences in the remaining four chapters. However, a caveat was added relating to the definition of “progress” in Geneva.
Though it appears the Turkish Cypriot side was willing to follow the formula and sequence, the caveat added by Anastasiades became a sticking point.
Anastasiades said on Friday in a written statement that since his original proposal was rejected by the Turkish Cypriot leader, he had submitted in writing the new compromise proposal.
Under the modified proposal, the purpose of the conference would be to reach a comprehensive settlement on the chapter of security and/or “to achieve sufficient progress” within a range of agreement before moving on to territory.
“In order to avoid any ambiguities or disagreements in Geneva, my proposal provided for progress to be made on the basis of specific and mutually agreed criteria,” he said. The leaders could not reach agreement however on what criteria might be laid down or how “sufficient progress” could be measured.
Politis on Friday reported, citing sources, that the Greek Cypriot side wanted this in writing.
The president said his proposal would have paved the way for an effective management of the chapter on territorial adjustments and then, an extensive negotiation to follow that would last for as long as needed, on the outstanding issues of the other four chapters, with the aim of achieving a comprehensive settlement.
“Unfortunately, my new proposal was rejected by the Turkish side without consideration,” he said.
Friday’s development with Eide throwing in the towel for now, was precipitated by Akinci’s refusal to attend a joint meeting of the leaders on Monday.
Anastasiades said it was “with great sadness” that he learned from Eide that the Turkish Cypriot leader did not accept his compromise proposal and that Akinci had declined a joint meeting on Monday.
The goal of the meeting would have been to review the situation in order to find a mutually acceptable approach that could have led to concrete steps, the president said. “The Turkish Cypriot leader rejected the invitation from the special adviser for a joint meeting on Monday, which I had accepted immediately,” he added.
“My greatest disappointment is the content of the statement issued by the Turkish Cypriot leader in an attempt to blame the Greek Cypriot side on the pretext that I supposedly put conditions on the methodology to be followed in Geneva,” he said.
Anastasiades, who has been accused by critics of stalling due to elections next year, said it was the Turkish side that was trying to impose conditions. He said Akinci wanted both leaders to lay their cards on the table in a give-and-take process in Geneva, and also to have Cyprus suspend drilling in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) slated for July. He said, meanwhile, all of his own proposals were rejected by Akinci.
“If the Turkish Cypriot side, and Turkey in particular, want, as they say, to find a solution to the Cyprus problem, I am ready to attend a conference on Cyprus, in Geneva, at any time, but not for reasons of impression or to search for pretexts to blame, but for a meaningful and effective negotiation,” he said.
Akinci said the Greek Cypriot side’s preconditions had been presented to him as an official position, but the Turkish Cypriot side would not accept preconditions.
“Mr Anastasiades has clearly conveyed to us today that he will not change this stance,” he said, adding that the Greek Cypriot side was going back on every mutual understanding reached.
Anastasiades’ desire was to eliminate the principle that “all issues will be discussed in an interconnected way” and to primarily discuss the chapter of security and guarantees. If that then was completed, they would take out the maps they exchanged in January in Geneva from the UN safe and complete the issue of territory, and then look into the remaining four chapters. “Such a way of negotiating is impossible,” said Akinci.
He reiterated that the Turkish Cypriot side was ready to discuss all issues in an interconnected way in Geneva and to stay there until a result was reached. Akinci added that Eide’s efforts failed because of Anastasiades’ stance.
Anastasiades said he was surprised by Akinci’s statement on the cross-negotiating of all the chapters, “since he himself, all this time, has been vigorously refraining from engaging in any cross-curricular dialogue related to the chapter on territory” except for the exchange of maps in Geneva, the president said.
“At the same time, and with regard to the chapter on security and guarantees, he was claiming that the substantive negotiation shall only be discussed at the end of the process, as the guarantors must also be involved,” said Anastasiades.
In their last meeting, the leaders did agree to a new Geneva conference and to ask the UN in consultation with the EU and guarantor powers to reconvene the meeting some time in June.
Eide is to meet Greek Foreign minister Nicos Kotzias in Athens on Monday, while Anastasiades also had a phone conversation with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday.
