P.U.P. Cautiously Optimistic About Progress in Istanbul Talks

Cordel Hyde

So what’s the P.U.P. position on the big news coming out of the Istanbul breakthrough? That agreement between both foreign ministers that Belizean military and civilians will be allowed to traverse the Sarstoon unhindered? The Opposition actually has a representative in Istanbul, Senator Eamon Courtenay, and notwithstanding Government’s releases, today Deputy Leader Hyde told News Five they’d prefer to get the news from Courtenay before jumping for joy.

Cordel Hyde, Deputy Leader, People’s United Party

“We would err on the side of caution and wait until our representative comes back to say to us exactly what happened. As far as we know earlier last week the Government put out a release to say that on Saturday they were going to have talks on the Sarstoon matter to try to reach some sort of definitive agreement. When our representative was on the way Saturday to the airport, there wasn’t any certainty that a meeting would take place. There wasn’t any certainty as to when or where or what would have been on the agenda. We are happy to hear that there was a meeting yesterday and one today, but we await the results and hopefully it’s good news. We are hopeful for good news but we’re also bracing for less than good news.”