'First reading' ends

The leaders of the two communities met yesterday first in a tête-á-tête session for about an hour and a half and after that in a full session with the United Nations in the last of their meetings before their summer break. They discussed the issue of citizenship, aliens, immigration and asylum.

Alexander Downer, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus, said this was the last of what he called 'the first reading'. The first meeting of the second reading, he added, would take place on September 3, and would focus on the issue of governance and in particular the executive. Once they have finished discussing that issue, they will move to the question of property and then beyond property they will discuss other outstanding issues. He added that the leaders would be revisiting areas where there have been points of disagreement and addressing and endeavouring to resolve those differences.
"Certainly, from the perspective of the United Nations, we would say that this is good progress, and it shows that there has been significant progress in these negotiations", he said.

The last point I want to make is that the leaders have agreed that their representatives Mr. Iacovou and Mr. Nami should, with Mr. Zerihoun the Special Representative of the Secretary General, visit Limnitis and the visit will take place on Monday.

On his part President Christofias said progress in reunification talks between the two communities has fallen short of expectations, “Personally, I had been expecting greater progress…but that does not mean that no progress at all has been achieved,” he told newsmen when asked to assess the course of negotiations to the present day. “It has been a round of both convergences and differences,” he added. “There are matters where I really had expected us to move forward with greater speed…and with more mutual understanding. Therefore, the second round will be an attempt at greater mutual understanding, and I hope we will achieve this.”

Talat sounded more upbeat in his own appraisal of the talks, noting that “important things” had been achieved during the first reading. Though no timeframe had been set for the conclusion of negotiations, Talat said the aim was to speed through the second round of talks. That the two sides had—for the first time in the history of negotiations since 1974—prepared joint documents was significant, he added. Asked which issue he ranked as the most crucial for the second round, Talat said it was the property issue, “because this is what concerns people the most, compared to other matters, which are more theoretical. “People [in the north] keep asking me about the property issue…unfortunately, I cannot give them updates, because progress on this matter has been the least.”