‘Guterres reports show where failed policies have led’

The UN Secretary-General’s draft reports “show in the clearest way” where the policies of the current administration has led the Cyprus issue, independent presidential candidate Achilleas Demetriades said on Friday.

In the draft reports, currently circulating as unofficial documents, UNSG Antonio Guterres referred to hard-line rhetoric on both sides that was causing prospects for Cyprus settlement to fade. The reports offer a bleak outlook for the Cyprus problem, within a “polarised political environment.”

Demetriades said the reports “give us five main conclusions”.

“In the foreseeable horizon there is no possibility for a new round of talks. This means prolonging stagnation and deepening the status quo,” he said, adding that the UN does not seem willing after what happened in Crans-Montana in 2017 to take any new initiative.

He also said the report clearly lays the blame for the impasse on the leaders of the two communities and lists, one by one, what they could do and refrain from doing.

The UN also “in the clearest way” rejects the government’s decision to deploy 300 guards along the buffer zone to try and curb migration, calling it “a significant violation of the status quo”, Demetriades said.

“A simple reading of the Secretary-General’s reports shows that the policies pursued before and after Cran-Montana, has brought about the most negative results in Cyprus since the invasion,” Demetriades said.

He added that President Nicos Anastasiades did not take advantage of the presence of former Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, who was on board with negotiating for a bizonal, bicommunal federation unlike the current leadership in the north now pursuing a two-state solution.

“The reports show the difficulties but also shows how important it is to redouble our efforts to change things,” Demetriades said. “Those responsible for our current mess are part of the problem, not part of the solution.”