Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English, 98-03-13

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>

Friday, March 13, 1998

Seeking Britain's satisfaction

SPECULATIVE reports about the EU's response to the Cyprus government's proposal for the participation of the Turkish Cypriots in EU accession talks, appeared in all the papers.

Phileleftheros said that the meeting between President Clerides and the President of the EU Council of Ministers, British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, would be of critical importance, as it would show whether the EU finds the government proposal satisfactory.

According to a foreign diplomat, if the proposal was deemed satisfactory, it would weaken the position of France, at the EU foreign ministers meeting in Edinburgh, which is to discuss the presidency's opening statement at the March 30 ceremony for the start of accession talks with Cyprus.

France has attempted to make Cyprus' accession talks with the EU conditional on Turkish Cypriot participation. If the proposal is deemed unsatisfactory, and there is no unanimity among the 15 over the opening statement, Greece would block the start of EU accession talks with the five other European countries.

Alithia took a more positive line, claiming that the government's proposal had been deemed satisfactory by Britain. The reason for this, it suggested, was that the British EU presidency did not want to be burdened with responsibility for the failure of the EU expansion effort, given Greece's threat to block enlargement if Cyprus' accession talks are delayed.

The paper said that its report about British satisfaction was "indirectly confirmed" by Cook who told journalists the Denktash regime did not have the right to veto Cyprus' EU accession.

Simerini said that Clerides would be submitting a written proposal, which would remain on the table even after its expected rejection by Rauf Denktash. Only after it was accepted would the modalities of Turkish Cypriot participation be discussed.

It said that if France insisted on the adoption of its position on Cyprus by the 15 member-countries, there would be no accession talks with any of the applicant countries.

Haravghi reported that the United Nations would try to get the peace efforts going again. Diego Cordovez, the special envoy of the UN Secretary- General, would be visiting Nicosia, Athens and Ankara for this reason.

Nicosia and Athens were hoping that, with UN encouragement, Denktash would abandon his negative stance and talks would resume.

Machi, for the second day running, led with a report about the co- operation between Israel's and Turkey's security forces, which had the blessing of the US Pentagon. It claimed that Israel used its Ofeq3 satellite to spy on Cyprus and passed on the information to Turkey.

The Israeli ambassador said there was no truth in the story.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1998

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