President Nicos Anastasiades announced on Wednesday that he had decided to back down on his decision to controversially make public the minutes of meeting during the peace talks in Crans-Montana following a plea from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
Anastasiades had threatened to publicise the minutes of a meeting in the Swiss resort after being angered by comments made by UN Special Envoy to Cyprus Espen Barth Eide about Turkey’s position during the talks.
The minutes were from a dinner attended by several UN officials, Anastasiades, Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias.
Furthermore, Anastasiades goes on to say that even though he will not be making the minutes public, they will be given to the heads of the EU Council and UN Security Council
“Responding to the plea by the UN Secretary General, whose constructive approach to the Cyprus problem I have deeply appreciated, and respecting the diplomatic virtues, I have decided – at this current stage – to not make public the minutes of the dinner of July 6 at Crans-Montana, but to instead make them public to the members of the UN Security Council and to the heads of the European Council and European Commission,” read a statement from the Presidential Palace.
A National Council meeting will take place on August 1 where the President will discuss the next moves in the Cyprus problem with the heads of the political parties.
