Meeting on property “a failure”

President Christofias yesterday described his meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu as a “failure”, the Cyprus Mail reports.

Responding to a question on the meeting on his return to the Presidential Palace, the President replied: “Badly. We discussed the issue of properties and there is nothing to say.”

He added: “The meeting was a failure and we must let the people know, unfortunately.”

He elaborated on some of the sticking points on property, which the Greek Cypriot negotiating team has argued should be looked at alongside the question of territorial readjustments in a federal Cyprus.

He argued that during the last meeting with the UN chief in New York, it was decided to set up a committee to look into both these issues. However, “the Turkish Cypriot side is not responding”.

“We gave names, we are ready, we have found the necessary data for the issue of properties but unfortunately there is no response,” he added.

Asked about reports from New York that the British were working hard in the UN Security Council to push for an international conference on the Cyprus issue, Christofias said: “Things have changed.”

Cypriot diplomacy has taken the necessary steps, going as far up as British PM David Cameron, he said.

Regarding the UN Security Council’s upcoming resolution on the renewal of the UN peacekeeping force here, the President said the final draft would be “good” and “fair” and would “reflect what the UN Secretary-General has supported until now”.

Recent reports suggest British diplomats have been pushing for a provision in the resolution calling for an international conference before the internal aspects of a peace solution are agreed between the two communities, something which Christofias is vehemently against.

UN Special Adviser Alexander Downer also confirmed Christofias’ gloomy outlook.
“I think it’s fair to say the meeting was a fairly unsuccessful meeting. There was no progress made in terms of these discussions,” said.

“It is important to be frank with you. This meeting today could have been better. It was not a productive meeting and we look forward to next week’s meeting being much more productive.”

However, he added that the meeting was held in a very friendly atmosphere “as they invariably are”.

The Australian diplomat said the UN would meet with both leaders and their teams during the week to work on some of the issues.

Asked whether the two leaders will meet after the last scheduled meeting on January 9, Downer said this was a possibility since the date for another tripartite with the UN Secretary-General in New York has been set for January 22 until January 24.

However, he ruled out the possibility of cancelling the New York meeting in the Greentree complex should the leaders’ fail to make adequate progress.

He hoped that the meetings between the leaders, their representatives, between the UN and the two sides all “come together with some convergences on the core issues”.

He said he planned to discuss the issues of property, external relations, executive, territory and citizenship with the two sides during the course of this week.

But when asked to give an overall assessment of the peace talks, he revealed: “Overall, it could be going better. It could be going better.”