Parties not impressed, National Council to meet

By Jean Christou

THE National Council, some of the members of which have been accusing President Nicos Anastasiades of keeping them in the dark on the Cyprus issue, are due to meet on Saturday to be briefed on the series of visits by top diplomats in recent weeks.

Opposition AKEL, which supports the negotiations process but is no fan of the US, said on Friday that some of the positions expressed by US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday were “in the right direction”, party leader Andros Kyprianou said. However, he implied that Kerry had not gone as far as his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, who was in Cyprus on Wednesday, and had made clear statements on essential aspects of the Cyprus issue.

“It is very important that the foreign minister of the United States was in Cyprus, but this alone cannot be assessed on its own merit, and we need to evaluate the results of the meetings,” he said. “We will be able to formulate a more comprehensive view after the National Council convenes tomorrow.”

Ruling DISY leader Averof Neophytou said a real dynamic had been created around the Cyprus issue, in addition to the progress in the talks themselves despite the remaining difficulties. “What we are seeing is intense international interest,” he said.

Opposition hardline DIKO said the interest of the international community was welcome especially from the countries that are permanent members of the UN Security Council, including Russia and the United States.

It went to say that while Lavrov had observed the norms of such visits by not crossing to the north to meet the Turkish Cypriot leader, the same could not be said of Kerry whose visit “aimed at upgrading the puppet regime and the downgrading of the Republic to a community”.

Socialist EDEK echoed the comments saying the two visits in the same week enabled Greek Cypriots to make “objective comparisons” on how Russia had kept to international law and the US had not.

“The Kerry visit was essentially a continuation of the subversive policy of America against the Republic,” the party said.

The Greens and Citizens Alliance parroted the EDEK and DIKO line. All of the parties were keen to hear Anastasiades’ views at the National Council meeting, they said.

 

 

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.