Statements by the General Secretary of the C.C of AKEL Andros Kyprianou at the end of the meeting with US Ambassador Kathleen Ann Doherty

AK: We had a meeting with the US Ambassador in Cyprus which had been fixed some ten days ago. During the meeting we exchanged views on the situation as it is evolving after the step backwards that was recorded in Mont Pelerant.

AKEL’s view is very clear. We mustn’t under any circumstances lose our hope with regards the setback that has arisen. On the contrary, we should intensify the effort even more, in an organized way and collectively, based on the agreed principles. We should do so in an effort to resume the negotiations as soon as possible, aiming at overcoming the obstacles that exist. We await the return of the President of the Republic to Cyprus to brief us. As AKEL, we have a strong desire to undertake such concrete initiatives in various directions that will enable the resumption of the negotiations, I repeat, aiming at overcoming the obstacles and to move forward to the discussion of the issues before us.

The procedure is difficult, I have repeated in recent days too many times, and I will say it again now as well, that the effort underway would not be easy. If it was easy the Cyprus problem would have been solved many years ago. The degree of difficulty is very high, but when you do have such a degree of difficulty the reaction to it is to redouble the efforts that need to be made. And this is what we must do in our view.

Question: Did the Ambassador convey some position of the US?

AK: No, we haven’t discussed such issues. She clarified that their own role is not to convey positions. They are just trying there and where there is no existing scope to make a contribution, but nothing more. To be honest, as I understand it they too will expect to be informed more comprehensively in order to be able to form an opinion on how things should proceed.

Question: When you say “undertake initiatives” what do you mean?

AK: I will not say anything more. We await the return of the President. We will discuss with him and put forth our own views. If you want I can tell you that we will also have meetings with the Turkish Cypriot parties to exchange views to see what the given conditions are as they are evolving and what needs to be done to overcome these problems that have been created.