LONDON: The British Government has decided to complete its military and political withdrawal from turbulent South Arabia by Nov 30 — or 40 days ahead of schedule — informed diplomatic sources reported on Tuesday [Oct 31] night.

Behind the speed-up, to be announced in the Parliament on Thursday by Foreign Secretary George Brown, lies a calculated risk.

Informants said it is to press the embryo states’ rival nationalist groups into an agreement on the formation of the successor Government.

Leaders of the National Liberation Front (NLF) and the Front for the Liberation of South Yemen (FLOSY) have been trying inconclusively in Cairo to settle the terms and methods of sharing power after the British leave.

If they fail, the British still intend to quit despite definite dangers that the country might split up and erupt in civil war. — Agency

[Meanwhile, as reported by agencies in Nicosia, Cyprus,] a new crisis started brewing over the Cyprus question yesterday [Oct 31] after the Makarios Government announced the arrest last night of Turkish Cypriot leader Dr Rauf Denktash.

Simultaneously, Greek Cypriot National guard units were placed on alert as a precaution against a possible renewal of fighting between the island’s Greek and Turkish communities.

A Makarios Government communiqué issued here last night said Mr Denktash, banned from Cyprus in 1962, was arrested along with two other Turkish Cypriots, Mr Osman Konak and Mr Ervot Ibrahim, while trying to enter the island “illegally” by boat in the south-east.

The communiqué alleged Mr Denktash had landed “on a secret mission” in order to implement “certain instructions of the Turkish Government”. The arrested men said their boat had been brought into Cyprus territorial waters “by a Turkish ship”, the communiqué further alleged.

Unconfirmed reports alleged that weapons had been found in the boat.

Dr Denktash, formerly President of the Turkish Cypriot Communal Chamber which administers the community’s separate affair, has been in exile in Turkey since early 1964.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2017