Cypriot doubts over swift deal (Annan Plan Redux.)

While the Cypriot president yesterday cast doubt on whether a deal to reunify Cyprus would be struck in the near future, a US envoy who met Tassos Papadopoulos urged the Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot sides to generate momentum for new talks rather than wait for a helping hand.

When asked whether an agreement on the island's future might be possible before October, when Turkey is due to begin negotiations to join the EU, Papadopoulos appeared cautious. «Since we have not yet started the talks, it is very hard to predict. We have had a bad experience once that time limits do not work,» he said, referring to a failed attempt last year, under UN auspices, to agree on reunification terms with the Turkish Cypriots.

After meeting Papadopoulos, Laura Kennedy, the US deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, repeated calls by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for the Greek Cypriots in particular to make known their objections to the reunification blueprint they rejected last April. Kennedy said that this would make for a «realistic» approach to the problem and would allow for negotiations between the two sides, stalled since last year, to resume. Nicosia, however, is reluctant to reveal its hand before talks start again.

«It is not the US, the UN or the EU that will solve the Cyprus problem. That is up to the Cypriots,» said Kennedy, in Nicosia yesterday on a fact-finding mission that has already included visits to Ankara and Athens this week. Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Giorgos Koumoutsakos said yesterday that Nicosia would need to be made aware of the negotiation process before it could make its position known.

COMENTARY FROM SAME PAPER:

Pragmatism
A year after Greek Cypriots voted en masse against a UN-sponsored plan for the reunification of the divided Mediterranean island, Washington is stepping up pressure to restart the stalled peace talks. But its tactics are wrong. Washington’s new Cyprus envoy, Laura Kennedy, is calling on Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos to outline changes Nicosia wants to make to the plan before any new negotiations begin. It has made no similar demands on the other parties. The government in Athens is without doubt facing similar pressure.

Washington is thereby acting as if all sides have already embraced UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s blueprint save for a few details that Nicosia has to clarify.

But this is not the case here. The UN plan was set to be put to a referendum on both sides of the green line. A negative verdict by either of the two camps would be enough to kill the plan. And so it happened, as the overwhelming majority of Greek Cypriots turned their backs on the UN initiative. This means that there is no roughly agreed settlement to which only slight changes need be made. What there is, rather, is a deadlock that can only be lifted with a fresh round of talks. As with all bargaining processes, in this case also both sides must present their positions. We cannot expect one side to show its cards beforehand. Nor can the American envoy afford to say that “the initiative will have to come from Cypriots rather than outsiders.” Everyone knows that Turkish troops are occupying Cypriot territory and that Ankara is the one pushing for membership of the European Union.

Treading with prudence and pragmatism, Papadopoulos admits that any new negotiations will be based on the already rejected Annan plan. Moreover, the Greek-Cypriot leader stresses that he is not seeking for a just solution — for no acceptable solution will any longer be a just one. What Papadopoulos is really after is a viable solution. And there can be no sustainable settlement so long as the question of withdrawing Turkish troops remains unanswered. Besides, it was the recently elected Turkish-Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat who said a year ago that the UN reunification plan could fail anytime if developments failed to meet Ankara’s expectations.

Papadopoulos has taken the path of realpolitik: a path that will lead to a genuine solution of the Cyprus dispute and not to bigger problems. Athens is right to back him and do its best to convince Washington that Cyprus does not need a quick-fix solution but a genuine negotiation process that will result in a workable and enduring settlement.

"Moreover, the Greek-Cypriot leader stresses that he is not seeking for a just solution — for no acceptable solution will any longer be a just one. What Papadopoulos is really after is a viable solution. And there can be no sustainable settlement so long as the question of withdrawing Turkish troops remains unanswered. Besides, it was the recently elected Turkish-Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat who said a year ago that the UN reunification plan could fail anytime if developments failed to meet Ankara’s expectations.

Papadopoulos has taken the path of realpolitik: a path that will lead to a genuine solution of the Cyprus dispute and not to bigger problems. Athens is right to back him and do its best to convince Washington that Cyprus does not need a quick-fix solution but a genuine negotiation process that will result in a workable and enduring settlement."

Exactly on the money, LM! You know, in the law we always try to get the other side to negotiate against itself. That's just what that scoundrel Anan and the State Department are trying here. The Cypriots will hold out. I just hope Athens will too, but the pressure, especially on the Greek government, will be enormous.

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