Cyprus-Forum.com

[Sotos]

Cyprus struck out at Washington yesterday after the US Embassy in Nicosia claimed that President Tassos Papadopoulos had “misled” the public over US comments regarding a stalled plan to reopen a commercial street that runs through Nicosia’s buffer zone.

“President Papadopoulos has implied that the United States — alone among members of the Security Council — has refused to condemn construction activities... as an encroachment of the buffer zone. That statement is misleading,” the US Embassy statement said on Thursday.

Cypriot government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides described the statement as “unacceptable” and defended Papadopoulos’s observation as “absolutely accurate.”

The Cypriot government on Monday withdrew its consent from plans to reopen the shopping street, claiming that Turkish forces had breached the UN-monitored ceasefire line by starting construction on an elevated walkway.

Cypriot Foreign Minister George Iakovou said that Nicosia may appeal to the Security Council over breaches by Turkish troops in the buffer zone.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that progress toward reunifying Cyprus was “negligible at best” in a report to the Security Council yesterday. Annan recommended that the UN peacekeeping force be kept on the island until at least June next year.

Annan accused the Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot sides of using the opening of checkpoints as an opportunity to each “alter the status quo to its advantage, whether in the form of new construction or incursions of personnel into the buffer zone.” Annan said he did not believe that the time was right to send a full-time representative to Cyprus until conditions for talks were clarified.

[cypezokyli]

re soto there are already two-three threads on this subject. you could just put it in one of them

as for the article itself. its difficult to choose who to believe since both the americans and tassos dont have such good reports when it comes to truth.
the problem with opening ledras is that the aim of bringing the people together takes second priority to the who is going to have his way passed. imo the constructions will continue and the checkpoint will open from the north, and our goverment will refer to legality issues in keeping the status quo. at the end of the day, even if we are legally right, it will be difficult to convince anyone that we actually want the ledras to open but we keep it closed