THE GOVERNMENT’S and the opposition’s respective readings of the President testimony could not have been more dissimilar yesterday, the former claiming Christofias had “shed light” on the events of July 11 and the latter calling the President’s testimony a lesson in disinformation.
Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said the President’s appearance before the Mari panel on Monday has caused the “myths spread by the opposition in the last few weeks…to collapse like a house of cards.”
Stefanou’s take was that the President had “analysed all the facts and events clearly” and had demonstrated that Cyprus’ handling of the munitions cargo was in full compliance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
“It has become clear yet again that the explosion has nothing to do with the political decision to seize the cargo. The handling of the material was the jurisdiction of the…National Guard, not of the political leadership,” said Stefanou.
Among other things, Christofias told the Mari panel that the “whole incident constitutes a failure of the system.” He claimed also he had not been briefed of the outcome of two key meetings on the subject of the cargo, nor of a request by the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee on Iran to send a delegation to Cyprus to inspect the cargo.
Main opposition party DISY yesterday amped up the heat on the President. Spokesman Haris Georgiades said Christofias’ testimony was rife with contradictions.
“For weeks, our ambassadors have been telling us that, right up to the last moment, we were giving the international community the impression that we wanted to return the cargo to Iran. It is not until the last minute that we decided to comply with UNSC resolutions.”
He added: “You call this a government? This is not your neighbourhood grocer asking to inspect the cargo, it is the UNSC.”
DIKO spokesman Fotis Fotiou called attention to another apparent discrepancy: when former Foreign Minister Marcos Kyprianou offered to resign in the wake of the blast, the government publicly indicated it would try to convince him otherwise. But on Monday, Fotiou said, the President made it sound as if he had sacked Kyprianou.
EDEK spokesman Demetris Papadakis remarked that “this government underestimates everything: it underestimated the [risks posed by the] munitions cargo, and it underestimated the economic crisis.”
Papadakis noted further that, whereas for weeks the government spokesman was insisting the President knew nothing of the dangers, before the panel on Monday it turned out that Christofias “knew enough.”
And according to the Greens, Christofias’ pleas of ignorance do not pass muster: “He is the head of state. He ought to know.”
