Our View: Cyprus talks need results, not new ideas

The two leaders held their final meeting on Thursday, before they head to New York, with nothing to show two months after the visit of the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to Cyprus. None of the conditions set by Guterres for an expanded 5+1 conference, that President Nikos Christodoulides has been calling for, have been met in these two months, thus ruling out any possibility of movement. Guterres made this very clear at a news conference he gave ahead of next week’s UN General Assembly gathering. He would have no meeting with the two leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, he said, noting that “there is still much work to be done. ” He still tried to sound positive, declaring that “We are determined to do everything possible for that (5+1 meeting) to take place when conditions are met for the meeting to be successful.

” He was cautious because “we cannot repeat the mistakes of the past. ” Thursday’s meeting between Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman went well according to a UN communique, while the former described it as a “good meeting. ” Erhurman agreed, saying the meeting was “better than the previous one. ” At the meeting, Christodoulides presented new ideas on the confidence-building measures, the methodology and the substance of the Cyprus problem, and he said, “there was no negative response. ” Christodoulides, showing his tendency for putting a positive spin on everything, told reporters after the meeting that he believed “these new ideas on all three issues can lead us to positive developments. ” He then put the pressure on Erhurman saying that “if the necessary political will exists the ideas could lead to developments as early as next week. ” It is very doubtful there will be developments, because it is extremely unlikely…