UN might voice view on Cyprus
NICOSIA (AP) – Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides on Saturday said United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan may submit his own plan to settle Cyprus’s long-running conflict if talks on reunifying the Mediterranean island keep faltering. On returning from Paris, where he held talks on Friday with Annan and Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, Clerides said the UN secretary-general felt both sides to the dispute needed to «make every effort to overcome basic differences by October 3.» Annan expects to meet Clerides and Denktash again in New York on October 3-4. «The secretary-general let it be understood that at some stage, if we are unable to agree, he will express his views on how to overcome differences,» Clerides told reporters upon returning to Cyprus. Friday’s meeting failed to break the deadlock in the UN-sponsored talks, the latest round of which began in January. Annan stated at the end of the Paris meeting that «serious differences remain» but that «the elements of a comprehensive settlement that would meet the basic needs of both sides do, in fact, exist.»
