Tuesday, September 12, 2000
Time to "move ahead," Annan says as Cyprus proximity talks resume
12 September -- As a new round of proximity talks on Cyprus got under way today at UN Headquarters in New York, Secretary-General Kofi Annan met separately with Messrs. Glafcos Clerides and Rauf Denktash, telling them that "the time has come to move ahead."
The Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot parties have been participating, since December 1999, in proximity talks to prepare the ground for meaningful negotiations leading to a comprehensive settlement.
"In the course of these talks I have ascertained that the parties share a common desire to bring about, through negotiations in which each represents its side -- and no one else -- as the political equal of the other, a comprehensive settlement enshrining a new partnership on which to build a better future in peace, security and prosperity on a united island," the Secretary-General said in a statement to the parties that was later released to the press.
"In this spirit, and with the purpose of expediting negotiations in good faith and without preconditions on all issues before them, I have concluded that the equal status of parties must and should be recognized explicitly in the comprehensive settlement which will embody the results of the detailed negotiations required to translate this concept into clear and practical provisions," Mr. Annan said.
Mr. Clerides and Mr. Denktash were also invited by the Secretary-General to meet tomorrow with his Special Adviser on Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto. Mr. de Soto told a press briefing today that the Secretary-General was allowing for the possibility that he himself, "at appropriate times," would join in the talks personally.
"He is prepared to take a somewhat more active role than he has done until now," Mr. de Soto said.
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