Leaders ponder more crossing points

GREEK Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders yesterday decided to establish a committee that would look into opening more crossings between the island’s divided communities as the United Nations are pushing for more momentum in the Cyprus problem negotiations.

“That joint committee will no doubt be put together fairly soon,” UN Special Adviser Alexander Downer said after a meeting between President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu.

There are currently seven crossing points between north and south, the latest one, Limnitis, opened in October.

Christofias and Eroglu also exchanged views on their November 18, meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York, and the issue of property, Downer said.

The UN official said details of the meeting’s agenda have not yet been finalised but “no doubt the Secretary-General will want to talk to the leaders, inter-alia, about the property question, but I am sure he will want to talk more broadly about the whole process.

“We still have two and a half weeks to go until the meeting takes place, so all of that will be worked out much nearer the time,” Downer said.

The Australian diplomat said the New York meeting is important as the UN try to inject momentum in the talks.

“There obviously has been some slowing of the momentum in recent times, and the Secretary-General has taken the initiative of calling the leaders about that, and he thought it best to invite them to New York,” Downer said. “And I think this is an important part of the overall engagement by the United Nations with the leaders.”

Downer said the two leaders will meet again next Monday.

Their representatives will meet on Wednesday and possibly on Friday.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.