By Jean Christou
PROXIMITY talks in New York failed to get off the ground yesterday after the government took offence to a UN statement on the equality of the two sides and refused to meet envoy Alvaro de Soto.
The decision not to attend the scheduled meeting with the UN envoy was reached after a lengthy meeting of the National Council, members of which accompanied President Glafcos Clerides to New York.
Clerides will ask UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan for a written explanation of his comments on the opening day of the talks, government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou said.
He said whether or not the Greek Cypriot side would attend today’s scheduled meeting would be announced later.
"The President of the Republic is sending a letter to UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan in which he outlines his comments and positions in relation to the statement Annan made yesterday (Tuesday)," Papapetrou said.
In the offending statement, Annan said: "In the course of these talks I have ascertained that the parties share a common desire to bring about, through negotiations in which each represents its side — and no-one else — as the political equal of the other, a comprehensive settlement enshrining a new partnership on which to build a better future in peace, security and prosperity on a united island. In this spirit, and with the purpose of expediting negotiations in good faith and without preconditions on all issues before them, I have concluded that the equal status of the parties must and should be recognised explicitly in the comprehensive settlement which will embody the results of the detailed negotiations required to translate this concept into clear and practical provisions".
There was little commentary out of New York yesterday where Clerides convened the National Council for a three-hour meeting but Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash who is seeking recognition for his breakaway regime in the north, hailed Annan’s statement as the "foundation stone for the solution defended by the TRNC".
"In other words it stresses several facts that we have always insisted on. What we foresee is a confederal Cyprus state based on two states and one where none of the sides represents the other," Denktash said.
In Nicosia some politicians called for a withdrawal of the Greek Cypriot side from the negotiations.
Communist AKEL spokesman Nicos Katsourides said the Greek Cypriot side was responsible for the development. "We wrongly committed ourselves to say that whatever happened we would continue the talks," he said. "Our side has to react and show that if this is the aim of the talks we cannot accept it."
In New York UN envoy de Soto tried to defuse the apparent crisis. He said the precise definition of the equal status of the parties, engaged in the negotiating process, would have to be defined at the end of the process.
"The Secretary-General did not ask for approval of his statement by the parties, it is his statement, his assessment, this is what he feels must happen and this is the guideline he will follow," de Soto said.
