PRESIDENT Glafcos Clerides has rejected a document put forward by the UN on the constitutional issue of the Cyprus problem, the CyBC reported from New York last night.
However, Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou said the Greek Cypriot side would attend a fifth round of talks, if the UN called it to.
UN Spokesman Fred Eckhard later told a briefing in New York that the next round of talks would take place in Geneva but that no date had been set.
Speaking in Cyprus on his return from New York, Kisos leader Vassos Lyssarides confirmed yesterday the National Council had rejected a five-page proposal on the island’s constitution, since it referred to the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides as “component states”. The CyBC said last night Clerides had returned the document to UN negotiator Alvaro de Soto during their regular meeting yesterday.
But the Cyprus News Agency said Clerides would not confirm the Greek Cypriot side had received any formal document, saying merely: “We have given replies to the ideas they presented us with.”
Clerides told reporters in New York that: “ The fact that some have put forward suggestions for rotating presidency, for decision-making by consensus and the right to separate sovereignty for both communities should come as no surprise. We have heard those suggestions many times in the past such as in the Boutros Ghali set of ideas. The bottom line is that we always reject these kinds of proposals. I do not accept rumours that there is a backtracking on our positions. We just have to be careful like always.”
Papapetrou told journalists that “the UN have assured the Greek Cypriot side that anything like a confederation or acknowledgment of Denktash’s regime would be out of the question.
“The important thing is not what Denktash tables before us but how we deal with it. The President does not discuss anything but a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation as a solution for the Cyprus problem.”
Papapetrou said the Greek Cypriot side would attend a fifth round of proximity talks if asked by the UN to do so.
The fourth round of UN-led proximity talks conclude today.
