Cyprus looks to UN chief for stalled peace process revival

Papadopoulos to hold talks with Ban Ki-moon in New York tomorrow

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a recent photo.

NICOSIA (AFP) – Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos is to hold talks with UN chief Ban Ki-moon in New York tomorrow in a bid to revive the stalled peace process on the divided island, his spokesman said.

Papadopoulos will meet the secretary-general three weeks before rival Turkish-Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat holds talks with Ban on October 16 over the future of the island.

Nicosia views the two meetings as crucial in efforts to kick-start a peace process dormant for more than three years.

“We have to be patient for the two meetings to take place and see if the UN secretary-general judges whether conditions exist for him to take a more active role,” Cypriot government spokesman Vasilis Palmas told reporters yesterday.

However, he said Ban had adopted a “cautious and reserved approach” toward the Cyprus issue.

The spokesman said that the Greek-Cypriot leader would discuss the failure to implement a UN-sponsored accord which the two Cypriot leaders signed up to in 2006.

The so-called July 8 agreement called for a twin-track process on day-to-day problems such as crime prevention in parallel with talks on key issues on power sharing and territory.

“They will discuss the July 8 agreement which is the only one on the table,” said Palmas. “The president has his proposals and he will submit them to Ban Ki-moon, they are proposals that envisage implementation of the process.” On September 5, Talat met Papadopoulos, head of the internationally recognized Cyprus government, in a bid to rekindle talks on reunifying the island, but there were no tangible results.

The most recent international bid to reunify the island failed in April 2004 when the Greek Cypriots voted down a UN-drafted settlement plan, even though the Turkish Cypriots gave it overwhelming support.