As published in Phileleftheros Newspaper...
(English Text)

Ambassador Klosson's Q&A, Phileleftheros Newspaper

Sunday, June 8, 2003

1) The US is returning to the forefront following The Hague with Mr. Weston's trip to the region and the Powell-Iacovou meeting in Washington.  What's the objective of this intervention at this phase?

Our objective remains what it has been all along – to provide U.S. support for the search for a comprehensive Cyprus solution in the context of the UN Secretary General’s Good Offices Mission and on the basis of the Secretary General’s settlement plan.  As you know, the UN Security Council backed the plan in April by adopting UNSCR 1475, and urged the parties to negotiate within that framework.  Ambassador Weston, the U.S. Special Coordinator for Cyprus, who came to the island in April, will return to the region next week to engage in normal consultations and project U.S. support for UN efforts. 

2)  You have stated that there is a new situation following April 16.  What changes in relation to the process and the content of the Annan plan?

The Annan Plan was designed to be implemented before signature of the EU accession treaty, so some changes are necessary to take that into account.  It may also be modified through negotiation.  Expectations that negotiations will produce drastic improvements, however, must be tempered by realism.  Major improvements won’t be possible without major concessions at the negotiating table.  Given the past positions of the parties, it’s hard to envisage wholesale structural changes to the plan acceptable to both sides.

Contacts between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots in recent weeks have sent an overwhelmingly positive message that people in both communities want reconciliation.  Those contacts have exploded the myth that Greek and Turkish Cypriots have to be kept apart to preserve peace.  Gone too should be doubts about whether there is sufficient goodwill to make the Annan plan work. The challenge for all is to mobilize these positive energies to advance toward a settlement based on the Annan plan.

3) What are you doing in order for the [T/C, G/C, EU] measures not to constitute a permanent solution?

The United States, the UN Secretary General and others have welcomed the steps taken recently, but also pointed out that they are not a substitute for a solution.  Such measures improve the atmosphere within which the search for a solution on the basis of the Annan plan will continue.  In and of themselves, these steps do not resolve problems of governance, territory, property and security addressed in the Annan plan.   We support the Secretary General’s recommendations to the UN Security Council on the way forward, and continue our diplomatic efforts along those lines.