THE NATIONAL Council was yesterday unanimous in its support of pushing the July 8 agreement at tomorrow’s talks between President Tassos Papadopoulos and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.
The National Council convened 48 hours ahead of the scheduled meeting between Papadopoulos and Talat at the residence of UN special envoy Michael Moller at 4pm.
The 90 minute meeting, which began just after at 5pm, involved the president informing the advisory body’s members about what efforts had been made to implement the July 8 agreement and his assessment of it and the prospects of its promotion.
Following its conclusion a statement unanimously adopted by the Council was read out by government spokesman Vassilis Palmas.
“The president of the Republic informed the members of the body about the developments of efforts to implement the process so far and expressed his assessments on prospects of promoting the July 8 agreement,” he said.
Palmas added that the Greek Cypriot side and the National Council remained committed to the agreement.
During the meeting the members of the advisory body expressed their positions and views as regarding tomorrow’s meeting, the government spokesman said.
Palmas refused to comment to what extent the issue of whether or not Papadopoulos would discuss the promotion of a bizonal, bicommunal federal solution with Talat had been raised. His only comment was that Christofias had made one reference to the issue but it had not been discussed.
Earlier in the day and responding to concerns about risks that an open agenda for the Talat meeting might entail, Palmas pointed out that in letters exchanged for the meeting the position of the leaders was “that during this meeting the July 8 agreement should be promoted”.
The July 2006 agreement, clinched under UN auspices between Papadopoulos and Talat, provides for discussions at technical committees and working groups on issues that affect the day-to-day life of both Greek and Turkish Cypriots as well as issues relating to the Cyprus problem. No such discussions have taken place yet, in spite of year-long meetings between top aides of the leaders of the two communities.
Referring to criticisms by AKEL and DISY party representatives that the president needed to clarify his potion on the Cyprus problem following a recent barrage of conflicting comments from Papapdopoulos’ camp regarding a biocommunal, bizonal federation, Palmas said: “The President’s positions are clear and have already been tabled and we believe that any discussion on these issues is merely a matter of personal opinion.”
He added: “The UN-proposed solution plan, the Annan Plan, did not provide for a bizonal, bicommunal federation but it was a solution plan that would have created two states and in essence it abolished the bizonal, bicommunal federation.”
At yesterday’s meeting AKEL was represented by Demetris Christofias and Nikos Katsourides, DIKO was represented by Marios Karoyian and George Kolokasides, EDEK was represented by Yiannakis Omirou and Kyriakos Mavronikolas, Evroko was represented by Demetris Syllouris and Nikos Koutsou, and the Green party was represented by George Perdikis and Dinos Paspallides.
Only opposition DISY remained absent after it suspended its participation to the Council, saying it did not function properly.
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