U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon warned Cyprus's Greek and Turkish leaders they were running out of time to settle their dispute over the island, and urged them to break a deadlock in talks at a summit in New York later this month, Reuter’s reports.
In unusually blunt letters to both leaders, Ban laid out the differences between the divided Cypriot communities that are still blocking efforts to reunify the country.
"The negotiation ... currently finds itself at an impasse on several issues," Ban wrote in both letters dated 4 Jan, seen by Reuters on Monday.
"I am concerned that opportunities to successfully conclude negotiations will be limited once the Republic of Cyprus takes up the presidency of the European Union on 1 July 2012," he added in the letters.
Diplomats fear Cypriot politicians will be distracted by the presidency of the EU and spend less time on peace talks. They say the presidency could also alienate the island's Turkish leaders and widen differences between the two sides.
But both sides remain divided on how they would govern the island together and demarcate territory. Disagreements have also hit efforts to hold an international conference to hammer out the final phases of a settlement, wrote Ban.
President Christofias yesterday announced that the National Council would convene next Monday to discuss developments in the Cyprus problem in view of the forthcoming meeting in New York, including the latest letter sent by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the two communities.
Speaking after his meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Eroglu on Monday, Christofias said he was saddened that everyone had rushed to criticise his government, based on an interpretation of the letter by Turkish Cypriot news agency Anatolia which was circulated yesterday.
He admitted that Ban referred to the talks reaching the final stages and July being a landmark date, but he added this should not be interpreted as a timeframe for a solution to the Cyprus problem.
The president also said the SG underlined the need for convergences on domestic matters, before he meets with the two leaders on January 22.
“(Ban) is effectively noting that we have reached a dead end in these matters and he is calling on both leaders to work intensively in the time that is left, in order to break this dead end. That is the whole essence,” said Christofias.
The president said it would be wrong to turn down an invitation by the UNSG, though he promised the Greek Cypriot side would not deviate from its initial principles of “one state, with one sovereignty, one nationality and one international personality”.
He also said he had made it clear that the Greek Cypriot side cannot be forced to change its positions on issues that have almost been concluded and on which Mr Eroglu has changed position.
“It is Mr Eroglu who should return to the positions that have been agreed and not us to be forced to move further”, he said.
He said he and Eroglu had discussed procedural issues before the meeting at Greentree and that significant differences on the issues of governance, property and territory still remain.
“I again raised the question that, if in these two weeks that separate us from Greentree no convergences are achieved, what would be the point of Greetree?”
The Monday meeting was the last between the two leaders before they go to New York, although not the last of their representatives and their teams.
“If the Leaders wish to meet again before Greentree, they certainly can do that and we would be happy to facilitate that within the next couple of weeks”, Alexander Downer, the UN Special Advisor said afterwards.
Asked if he had seen the necessary “determination” he had talked about the previous week, Downer replied: “They are working at it very hard”, adding that their representatives and their teams are going to meet on two occasions during the course of this week with clear plans for those meetings which they hope would make a solid contribution to the process.
“They want to be able to go into and come out of the Greentree meeting with some solid convergences”, he said. “Every effort is being made to get as much converged before Greentree rather than leave everything to two days in America”.
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