Eide experssed his ambition for a deal on Geneva before the week is out
Eide to meet leaders in separate meetings on Thursday
UN envoy Espen Barth Eide is set to meet President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci in separate meetings on Thursday, continuing Wednesday’s shuttle diplomacy to get agreement on a new Cyprus conference.
Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), Government Spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said that Eide and President Anastasiades were scheduled to meet at 10 am on Thursday morning.
Eide is scheduled to meet with Mustafa Akinci at 11.30.
Eide said he wanted a deal on Geneva before the week is out.
“It is both possible and also my ambition to get an agreement on this issue at the end of this week,” Eide said after meeting Akinci.
“There is scope to find an agreement on this and there is still a way to go,” he added
Eide who returned to Cyprus on Tuesday night met with Anastasiades first and then with Akinci.
“The sole focus of this discussion is to see if we can reach an agreement between the leaders on whether to come back to the international Conference on Cyprus in Geneva and the necessary modalities of getting there and eventually also if we can have a date,” said Eide after meeting Anastasiades.
“There is still some distance to be covered. So the work may continue not only today but maybe in the coming days. But I do want to say that I see that there is a common will to try to find a shared platform,” he added.
The envoy said their was a “desire to go the final mile and go to Geneva”.
“I am basically listening to the leaders finding out the fine print of what they need and what they want and then we are trying to find a way to make that compatible.”
Eide said there was “no purpose in going to Geneva just for going to Geneva, just to spend some weeks in Geneva, it doesn’t have any meaning in itself”.
After his meeting with Akinci, Eide said that he will continue his shuttle diplomacy efforts.
“There are real differences we still have to work on.”
UN-facilitated peace talks are currently underway with a view to reunite Cyprus under a federal roof.
Anastasiades and Akinci met last Wednesday, in the framework of their negotiations, and both tabled their own proposals to move things forward.
Anastasiades told a televised press conference on Monday evening that he proposed going Geneva immediately , to convene a Conference on Cyprus for the completion and conclusion of the discussion on the Chapter of Security and Guarantees, then directly proceed immediately to the discussion and resolution of the property issue if and when there is a conclusion.
He proposed then staying on in Geneva for as long as necessary and holding a continuous summit of the leaders, in order to achieve not just substantive progress, but even the comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem as well.
However, Akinci has dismissed Anastasiades’ proposal as a bid for preconditions to be set before a meeting on Cyprus can take place in Geneva.
