On
Cyprus,
As UN Unaware
of Plan for
200,000 Syria
Refugees, Play
for
Loans?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 10 --
After the UN
Security
Council's low
key Cyprus
session
Tuesday
morning, Inner
City Press
asked UN envoy
Lisa
Buttenheim two
questions,
about Cyprus'
moves to
explore
natural
resources in
its Exclusive
Economic Zone,
and plans for
up to 200,000
refugees from
Syria.
Buttenheim
said
there is a
danger of
inflammatory
rhetoric about
resources,
while
acknowledging
that Cyprus
has the right
to explore in
its "E. E.
Zed." Of the
Syria refugee
plans she said
"I have not
heard that
myself."
She said
Cyprus is the
"primary safe
haven" for
nine
countries,
noting that
she is the
UN's
"designated
official" and
worked for
example on the
evacuation of
UN families
from Egypt in
February 2011.
But
Cyprus'
former UN
ambassador
Andreas
Mavroyiannis
told numerous
media
in Nicosia,
"We do not
know what will
happen in
Syria, but in
our planning
we have
estimated up
to 200,000
refugees could
arrive...
It will be a
very big
strain on us
if it happens,
so we will
need
help for
sure."
Cynics
say
this could be
a play for
loans not only
from Russia --
note that
as Inner City
Press reported
last week
Cyprus
abstained from
the
General
Assembly
resolution on
the rights of
Georgian IDPs
to return
to Abkhazia
and South
Ossentia --
but also from
the IMF.
The IMF has
a briefing on
July 12 --
which is when
"good offices"
man
Alexander
Downer arrives
in New York,
ostensibly to
meet new
Department of
Political
Affairs chief
Jeffrey
Feltman. Will
he like
Italy issue a
press release?
Watch this
site.
, 
