Filenews 29 April 2021
The announcement that a 5+1 meeting will be held again in two to three months was made by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who said in a statement that no common ground has yet been found for a resumption of negotiations on a solution.
Excerpts from Guterres' statements:
The position expressed yesterday by the Turkish Cypriots was that the many efforts made to resolve the Cyprus problem over the years have failed, including the most recent one in Cran Medan.
They believe that efforts for a bi-social federation have been exhausted and that Turkish Cypriots deserve an equal international status on the basis of two states cooperating with each other.
The position of the Greek Cypriot delegation was that negotiations should resume from where I stayed in Cran Monna and with a view to achieving a solution of a bi-social bi-community federation with political equality on the basis of UN resolutions, in the joint communiqué of 2014, in the work achieved so far, in the six elements I presented to Cran Modela and in the European acquis.
It wasn't an easy meeting. We held extensive consultations, bilateral meetings and plenary sessions to find common ground.
The truth is that at the end of our efforts we have not yet found enough common ground to allow the resumption of a formal negotiation in relation to the settlement of the Cyprus problem, but I do not give up, my agenda is very simple, it is strictly about fighting for the security and prosperity of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots who deserve to live in peace and prosperity together.
We have managed to agree that I will convene another meeting in the near future, 5 plus the UNITED States, again, with the aim of moving towards finding common ground so that formal negotiations can begin.
We are determined to do everything we can to move the dialogue forward and to be able to produce positive results.
Asked whether there would be consultations between this period and the next conference, the UN SG said that there would be consultations and the aim is to create as many conditions as possible for the next meeting to be successful. "I'm not going to give up and we're going to do our consultations to try to create the best possible climate for the next one," he said.
Asked when the next meeting would take place, he said that two to three months is the useful timetable, since if the time frame is too short it will not allow for a meaningful development, while if it is large it will not help our joint effort for a solution.
Asked to say how the UN would act given that the View of the Turkish Cypriots concerns the creation of two states, while the resolutions concern a bi-social bi-community federation, the UN SG said that it is impossible to square the circle in geometry, but very banal in politics.
He added that "the SG has a mandate given to him by the Security Council. I have to hold formal consultations on the basis of my terms of reference, but in an informal meeting without preconditions it is useful that all delegations can express their positions and this allows us to consult and report to the SA on the different positions expressed at that meeting."
Source: eyenews
