On
Cyprus Talks, ICP Asks of Walk-Out
& Request, UN Says Eide Meets Both Sides
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, February 16 -- On the
Cyprus talks, Inner City Press
on February 16 asked UN
Secretary General Antonio Guterres'
deputy spokesman Farhan Haq, UN transcript
here:
Inner
City Press: The Cyprus talks,
it's reported that the Turkish
Cypriot leader walked out.
It's also reported that he's
asked António Guterres
personally to get involved on
this historical issue about
commemorating this 1950 vote for
union with Greece. And so
I wanted to know, is António
Guterres going to get involved
in that? And, two, and
what is the UN's understanding
of the status of the
talks? And what's being
done to bring them back
together?
Deputy Spokesman: Yeah,
we're aware that the meeting
today between the Greek Cypriot
and Turkish Cypriot leaders
ended abruptly. The
Secretary-General’s Special
Adviser, Espen Barth Eide, is
meeting with both leaders today
to discuss the situation and the
way forward.
We'll see. Back on
January 16 amid reports on Greek
Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias
at the Cyprus talks in Geneva
with Antonio Guterres, Inner
City Press asked the UN's deputy
spokesman Farhan Haq about it. Video here, UN
transcript here and below.
On
January 23, Inner City Press
asked Espen Barth Eide about the
reported "spicy moments" with
Guterres at the talks. Tweeted
video here. Eide said
that the only issue was whether
the talks would continue on
January 13 or Jan 18. It was the
latter, and successful, Eide
said.
Eide did not then answer Inner
City Press' question about
Turkish soldiers remaining in
Northern Cyprus, but he went on
to say that is an attempt to
find new solutions. He also said
while there is no fixed deadline
for the talks, they will not go
on and on. And what about
Norway? We'll have more on that.
For
now, here are the UN Security
Council's January 23 "Elements
to the Press" on Cyprus:
"The
members of the Security Council
welcomed the progress made in
the negotiations on a Cyprus
settlement in recent months, as
well as the convening of a
Conference for Cyprus in Geneva
this month, which addressed
Security and Guarantees for the
first time.
The
members commended the steadfast
and courageous leadership shown
by both Cypriot leaders, the UN
for the crucial support it
continues to provide, and
reiterated their strong support
for Special Adviser Espen Barth
Eide and Special Representative
Elizabeth Spehar in their active
role in facilitating
discussions.
The
members reiterated their
commitment to supporting the two
sides in reaching a settlement
deal - including through the
rollover of the UNFICYP mandate
- and urged all parties to
maintain momentum and seize the
opportunity they now have to
secure an historic agreement for
a united Cyprus."
Here's
what Inner City Press earlier
asked the UN:
Inner
City Press: I'm sure
you've seen the coverage of the…
the Cyprus talks. A number
of the stories said that the…
the Greek Foreign Minister and
the Secretary-General didn't get
along and that, here's a quote
from one of the stories.
"Guterres was so irritated that
he… he has refused to sit in the
same room as the Greek Foreign
Minister in the foreseeable
future."
There are at least three
different articles in three
separate media saying
this. So I'm just
wondering, how would you
characterise the… the… the
participation of the Greek
Foreign Minister and the
Secretary-General's view going
forward on his participation?
Deputy Spokesman: No, I
mean, that, that's not, that's
not accurate. What, what I
would say is the
Secretary-General has been
dealing and will continue to
deal with all the various sides
regarding this.
You will have seen what the
Secretary-General said last
week, and I would just refer you
back to the text of what he
said. We continue to hope
that there will be an
agreement. Obviously, we
want to make sure that this is a
lasting and sustainable
agreement, and we will work in
good faith with all the various
sides.
After Haq said that reports of
Guterres being irritated were
inaccurate, the Head of Press
and Communication Office of
Greece's Mission to the UN
Athanasia Papatriantafyllou told
Inner City Press that the
reports were unfounded and
relations with Guterres
excellent.
The Greek version is that while
Kotzias wanted a political
meeting about Cyprus on
Friday in Geneva, the
Turkish side said they had other
engagements, presumably the
Astana talks on Syria. Perhaps
Turkey is feeling ascendant.
We'll have more on this.
It's
still worth revisiting the more
staged meeting of the two back
on January 6 (Inner
City Press photos here, Periscope here.)
Guterres joked that Kotzias'
gifts, a book, music CDs and a
box, were too heavy.
(Earlier in the day Guterres has
been led around to take selfies
with the correspondents the UN
has not, like Inner City Press,
evicted from their offices for
covering UN corruption, like the
Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe bribery
case. Video
here, story
here.)
The Greek meeting followed one
on January 5 with Turkey's
Foreign Minister Mevlüt
Çavusoglu. Photo
here; video
here.
Present at both meetings was
UN's Cyprus envoy Espen Barth
Eide, and Ban's Under
Secretaries General Feltman,
Ladsous and O'Brien. The "P3
men," some call them. Will they
be switched not only for gender,
but nation?
Guterres'
new chief of staff Maria Luiza
Ribeiro Viotti was there; his
Deputy SG Amina J. Mohammed
won't formally begin until next
month. Will that trigger the end
of Ban Ki-moon's era of
censoring and restricting the
Press?
Has
Guterres been
informed and digested that
one of the most active media at
the UN, Inner City Press which
at the January 5 noon briefing
asked about Myanmar, the Central
African Republic and Gambia, was
thrown
out of its office in 2016
and is still
being restricted and confined
to minders in 2017 for
merely trying to cover a
meeting, relevant to the Ng Lap
Seng UN bribery case, in the UN
Press Briefing Room?
On
January 3 when Guterres formally
took the reigns at the United
Nations on Tuesday, he said of
the UN, “We have to earn the
right to do the right thing.” Vine here.
He
might have added, “re-earn” the
right, because in recent years
the UN has been bleeding
credibility, from shirking for
six years its responsibility for
bringing cholera to Haiti to
letting peacekeepers who have
raped in the Central African
Republic and elsewhere enjoy
immunity, and even as in the
base of the Burundian contingent
in CAR, to rotated 800 more
troops in to get paid.
And so any implementation of
Guterres' message of hope would
have to include replacing the
Ban Ki-moon era officials who
brought the UN into disrepute. 45-second
tweeted video here.
UN Peacekeeping's Herve Ladsous,
who said that his troops would
rape less frequently if they had
been R&R or “rest and
recreation,” is slated to leave
in March. Longer
YouTube here.
But a real litmus test will be
replacing the head of Ban's
Department of Public Information
Cristina Gallach, who bought the
UN down first by neglecting to
do any due diligence as
now-indicted Macau businessman
Ng Lap Seng bought events in the
UN including its slavery
memorial (audit
here, Paragraphs 37-40 and
20b) then by ousting,
evicting and still
restricting the
investigative Press
which asked her about it.
There's
also the Wonder
Woman as UN ambassador fiasco,
and spending taxpayers' funds on
a DPI trainer who, among other
things, called
Detroit, Michigan a “third
rate city” in “flyover
country.” Four strikes and
you're out. Busca una otra.
***
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