Our View: Undermining the UN on the Cyprus issue

Ever since the UN Secretary-General’s personal envoy, Maria Angela Holguin, published her article about the peace process in which she expressed the view that more preparation was needed before a resumption of the talks, she has been criticised by President Nikos Christodoulides, his spokesman and the negotiator. It is very difficult to understand why the president has taken such exception to Holguin’s view that waiting until July before discussing the resumption of negotiations was the best way forward.

In his first reaction, a few hours after the publication of the article, Christodoulides asserted that neither the presidency of the EU Council nor May’s parliamentary elections, cited by Holguin, could justify the delay of the resumption of talks. He was ready to attend in the coming week, he declared, completely ignoring Holguin’s clearly explained reasoning for not rushing into a process now.

“The leaders need time for ideas to ferment and for their respective internal processes to unfold,” she wrote. The leaders had to continue meeting “to make small joint decisions and to explore ideas and viable pathways to restart a more formal negotiation process in the best possible way in July.” She also explained, as an experienced diplomat, “more preparation means greater chances of achieving positive and lasting results in the final stage.”

The envoy, appointed by UNSG Antonio Guterres, to facilitate the process, believes that now is not the right time to enter a new stage of negotiations. She wants better preparations between the two sides, including the building of trust between the two leaders and the implementation of confidence building measures. Add to this the fact Tufan Erhurman was elected in October and probably needs time to establish himself in the north and to work on his relationship with Turkey.

Why does Christodoulides refuse to accept Holguin’s plan and keep banging on about the holding of the informal, broad meeting under Guterres? Spokesman Constantinos Letymbiotis spoke about “artificial waiting” on Wednesday, insisting that the broad meeting which would be attended by the guarantor powers should not be delayed. Christodoulides was set to meet Guterres next month to discuss the matter, said Letymbiotis, who, like the president, has failed to present a single convincing reason for holding an informal meeting now, without any preparation. Too much time has been wasted, they both claim, but is that justification to jump into a process for which neither side is ready?

The fact is that Guterres fully backed Holguin’s line. His spokesman said that the UNSG “shares the view that more progress is needed among the leaders,” and had “full confidence” in Holguin. Why is Christodoulides going against the UN in such a crude way? Does he not trust Holguin’s method which has the full support of Guterres? Then, perhaps he should walk away from the process and inform the UN that he does not want its involvement in the Cyprus problem, because Holguin does not know what she is doing. That would be the honest approach.