UN Secretary General Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide has said he is “convinced” that the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leader are committed to the Cyprus talks’ process.
On Friday, Eide held talks with President Nicos Anastasiades, and is set to meet Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci on Saturday, in an effort to overcome the impasse reached in talks.
In statements after the meeting Eide said that he had a good meeting with President Anastasiades and that they explored ways of overcoming this current impasse in the talks but also what to do when the talks resume.
“I think we need to use our time as effectively as possible in order to shape the methodology for the last outstanding issues,” he said.
He said he agreed with a public statement made by President Anastasiades about the need to think about the methodology that they have been following.
“I fully agree with that and we discussed some ideas. These ideas I will share with Mr Akinci” he said, adding that “it is very much about trying to see how the essential outstanding issues can be structured in such a way that we remember what is important and what is more secondary.”
“My strong sense is that the will is there,” he added.
Eide said that these weeks were the most difficult in the process “but we must not allow the sustained progress of the 22 months to be destroyed by what is essentially an issue that is outside of the talks themselves, which has to do with the parliamentary vote that happened some weeks ago in the Greek Cypriot side and also the way that it has been reacted to.”
Issue of trust
Noting that there is an issue of trust, he said that his optimism over the talks in various statements he had made is based on the trust, the partnership, the leadership and the will of the two leaders to go the extra mile.
Right now, Eide said, that trust is not at its best moment, adding that “if we are not helping, all of us, the leaders to overcome this impasse in their own personal trust I think it will be difficult to re-establish the intercommunal trust which is also necessary”.
“I have seen nothing over the last weeks even that suggested to me that it is not possible to overcome the division of Cyprus. I am fundamentally convinced that it is within the realm of the possible” he continued.
Eide said that issues outside of the process itself can play a negative role if they evoke historic traditional fears and concerns of one community or the other and added that even if “we overcome this issue now there may be new attempts to derail the process.”
“We want to get back to where we were I cannot tell you when, but I will do whatever we can,” he added.
Asked if he proposed anything specific such as a dinner between the two leaders, he said that “we discussed some ideas; I met one of the two leaders, and I will see the other tomorrow so if there is anything concrete to say you will have to wait.”
Replying to a question, he said that he cannot see any motive from any leader not to return to the talks, noting that both of them have dedicated much of their life to the settlement, both of them have been elected on a clear platform of solution and both of them have invested 22 steady months in the process.
He added that if one side or the other does not want to continue, then he will not understand it.
“I have not heard it, definitely not here, and I am convinced that when I go to the north tomorrow I will also hear a commitment to the process,” he said, adding that certain issues have to be settled first but “the determination is there that is my strong conviction.”
Source: CNA
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