THE relationship between President Demetris Christofias and Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou is icy, their Cyprus problem philosophies are miles apart and small-townish Christofias feels diminutive next to his aristocratic minister, a confidential 2009 US embassy cable leaked by Wikileaks says.
The cable, dated April 16, was signed by US Ambassador to Cyprus Frank Urbancic and was sent to State Secretary Hillary Clinton ahead of Kyprianou’s visit on April 20.
Meant as a scene-setter, the cable discusses developments in Cyprus and the Cyprus problem, and provides Clinton with background on Kyprianou.
“The relationship between the Cypriot president and his FM is icy by all accounts,” it said. “Their Cyprus Problem philosophies are miles apart, for example, with Kyprianou much more the hard-liner.”
Urbancic added “the small-townish, USSR-educated, and far-from-eloquent Christofias feels a bit diminutive next to his aristocratic minister”.
In response, Christofias has isolated Kyprianou from the talks and minimised his influence “by seeking greater powers for the Presidential Diplomatic Office, staffed by more trusted confidants”.
The cable said Kyprianou was educated in all the right schools, including Cambridge and Harvard, and was groomed for politics from an early age.
“His name recognition here is such that pundits refer to him only as ‘Markos’, a la Elvis or Madonna,” the cable said. It added that most Cypriots believe he will eventually become president.
The embassy also notes that since Christofias’ election in February 2008 there has been an ideologically-motivated attempt to turn back the clock to the “heydays of the Non-Aligned Movement.”
“He has publicly praised Fidel Castro, welcomed a new Venezuelan Embassy in Nicosia, lauded Iran, and vilified NATO and the Partnership for Peace (PfP).”
The US said Christofias’ commitment to Russian President Dimitri Medvedev to promote the latter’s European security proposal within the EU seems gratuitous, while his outreach to Hugo Chavez and Venezuela “strikes us as an intentional move to distance his government from the United States.”
The embassy said the questionable policy shift was Christofias’ making but suggested to Clinton to call Kyprianou on it, “urging him to use the new and/or upgraded relations with rogue states to demand better behavior and improvements in their abysmal human rights records.”
Referring to Cyprus’ relations with Havana and Caracas, and the case of a ship – the Monchegorsk – carrying arms to Syria from Iran that was intercepted in Cyprus, Urbancic said it was clear that “Christofias’ Palace, not the Kyprianou MFA, is clearly at the helm.”
Cyprus detained the Cypriot-flagged Monchegorsk containing Iranian-origin weapons components allegedly headed for Hezbollah in Lebanon at the end of January 2009.
The components were seized after the government determined the shipment was in violation of UN Security Council resolutions – a separate embassy cable said this only happened after “full-court international press from the UN Security Council and EU”.
In yet another US cable regarding the Monchegorsk, dated February 2, 2009, Kyprianou appears to be saying “these people” – meaning Christofias and AKEL glitterati – had allowed the Monchegorsk to become an ideological, David versus Goliath affair, with “little Cyprus” naturally cozying up to Syria’s David.
But there were also positive mentions.
“Christofias personally approved our request for landing privileges for the aircraft carrying the lone surviving Somali gunman from the Maersk Alabama hijacking (and) voiced a commitment to work with the US and others to fight seaborne piracy,” the April 2009 cable said.
And in March 2009, Cyprus ordered the deportation to Greece of a terrorist wanted by Turkey, fully aware that Ankara would seek extradition from Athens.
