Leaders meet again to tackle ‘thorny issues’

PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat met yesterday to discuss external relations.

This was the leaders’ 12th meeting in the framework of direct talks which began in September.

The UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for Cyprus Alexander Downer said the pair discussed “the external relations, powers of a federal government”.

He added that talks on that issue would continue during their next meeting on December 22.

The next issue on the agenda “is the relationship between the laws of the constituent states and the federal government”, he said.

At their last meeting on December 2, the two leaders discussed matters relating to the civil service and the civil service commission.

Asked how the negotiations were proceeding so far, Downer said: “it is good that they continue the discussions on these issues”.

“[These are] very big issues for any community to work through,” he added.

The meeting, which was scheduled to take place on December 29 will not take place due to the December holiday season, said Downer.

Referring to his Monday meeting with Talat, the UN special envoy said it had been “a very good discussion about where the negotiations are and how they are proceeding”.

He would address the same issues during a similar meeting with Christofias, he added.

Commenting later on the ongoing talks Christofias said there were “thorny issues”.

However, the president refrained from going into detail about what was being discussed by each side as this would be unproductive.

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.