By Martin Hellicar
A REPORTED US proposal for a moratorium on overflights would not be enough to persuade the government even to postpone the arrival of the S-300s, the leader of governing Disy, Nicos Anastassiades, said yesterday.
The US would have to guarantee intervention to stop Turkish fighter jets violating Cyprus airspace before the government would reconsider deploying the Russian-made ground-to-air missiles, he said.
Anastassiades was commenting on widespread reports that the US had proposed a moratorium on overflights by Greek and Turkish fighter jets in exchange for Cyprus agreeing to buy shorter range missiles.
According to press reports, the US ambassador in Athens, Nicolas Burns, tabled the proposal during his meeting with Greek deputy Foreign Minister Yiannos Kranidiotis on Monday. The US is proposing that the British bases on the island undertake to monitor Cyprus airspace with the aim of halting overflights by the Turkish and Greek air force, the reports suggested. In exchange, Cyprus would cancel its controversial order for the S-300s, replacing these with shorter range S-15 missiles, which could not strike Turkish soil.
Anastassiades declined to comment directly on the reports, saying it would not be right to do so till after Kranidiotis – who arrives on the island for an official visit on Friday – had had a chance to brief President Clerides on the issue.
“What I do know is that certain preconditions have been set by our side, and we insist on these preconditions,” the Disy leader said.
He said a moratorium agreement would only have credibility if those enforcing it were empowered actually to intercept Turkish fighter jets.
“We need a guaranteed moratorium on flights, a guaranteed no-fly zone and not just a moratorium under which, most likely, there would just be confirmation of violations without the interception power which would deter an offensive move,” Anastassiades said.
Such a guaranteed no-fly zone would be enough for a postponement, but not cancellation of the S-300 deal, he said. He repeated the government position that only tangible progress towards a settlement or demilitarisation of the island would persuade the government to cancel the missile deal.
The moratorium idea was first put forward by Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos earlier this summer after tit-for-tat landings of Greek and Turkish F-16s brought tensions on the divided island to boiling point.
The proposal was welcomed by Nicosia, but Ankara has said it will not consider this or any other form of pay-off to the Greek Cypriot side to persuade it not to bring the missiles.
Nato has said it would be willing to police a no-fly zone over Cyprus and Britain offered to do the work on the ground.
The US and EU have made their opposition to the £200 million missile deal clear, saying it increases tensions on the island. Turkey has warned deployment of the missiles could lead to war. The government insists the missiles will come, but has put back delivery till October.
It is believed the Greek side will define its final position on the moratorium issue when Clerides meets Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis in Athens on August 27.