A PRESIDENTIAL aide said yesterday he had not informed Demetris Christofias of the outcome of a meeting on confiscated Iranian munitions or of a disagreement between the foreign and defence ministers some five months before the ordnance exploded killing 13 men.
Leonidas Pantelides, the head of Christofias’ diplomatic office, said the problem with the February 7 meeting was that there was a disagreement between the two ministers and it did not go anywhere.
“I did not know what to tell him,” Pantelides told an inquiry. “The meeting was a non-event.”
The diplomat said that the last time he spoke with Christofias about the cargo before the blast was September 2010.
Pantelides had been in touch with Iran, trying to convince them to agree to destroy the munitions.
In a September 6 memo to the president, Pantelides said the defence ministry “favoured destruction (of the munitions) due to some dangers posed by the high temperatures inside the containers during the summer”.
As I have already told you, I have spoken with the ambassador of Iran, who told me they would support this development (destruction) and would also speak to the Syrians so that they would also adopt this position.
According to Pantelides, his idea to separate the material, destroy the gunpowder and sell the rest, was rejected during the February 7 meeting, where he was effectively told to stay out of the matter by his boss, former foreign minister Marcos Kyprianou.
Pantelides said when he tried to say something, he was told off by Kyprianou because he had tried to speak before his minister.
He said that his idea was “ridiculed” and “I did not know what to tell him (Christofias).”
Pantelides said he was more in line with the former defence minister, who said his proposal had some value.
Investigator Polys Polyviou however, pressed Pantelides on the matter, saying one would have expected he would inform the president of the meeting, especially since for the first time the words ‘ risk of explosion’ were mentioned in reference to the cargo.
Pantelides said there was a disagreement between the two ministers and they should have gone to the president themselves.
He said the foreign minister had already told him off and pointed out that this was a matter for the ministers.
“The foreign minister considered me a potential competitor,” Pantelides said.
The diplomat said the apparent dysfunctional relationship with the foreign minister was not his fault and that he did his best to have cooperation with Kyprianou.
Going back to the September 6 memo, Polyviou asked Pantelides if Christofias had instructed him to go ahead and look into the possibility of destroying the gunpowder.
“I understood that I had his consent. I understood that this was his wish,” Pantelides said. “My effort was to get rid of it (cargo).”
Asked if after September 6, he had told the military to start destroying the munitions or if he had set up a meeting with the defence minister to tell him that Christofias had given the go-ahead to destroy the gunpowder, Pantelides responded “no.”
