TEGUCIGALPA, (Reuters) – Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and de facto rulers in power since a June coup returned to the negotiating table yesterday under U.S. pressure, with a pro-Zelaya radio station saying a deal may be close.
But Zelaya told the station, Radio Globo, it was too soon to know what the caretaker government’s position would be on the key issue of whether he can be temporarily reinstated.
“We are at the same point as where we started, with 95 percent agreed on,” Zelaya said. “There is absolutely no approval yet of anything.”
Zelaya appealed for calm after some protesters were hurt in protests backing the leftist, who was toppled in a coup on June 28 and exiled. He snuck back into the country last month.
A team led by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Tom Shannon and Dan Restrepo, Washington’s special assistant for Western Hemisphere affairs, is in Tegucigalpa for a last-ditch effort to broker a resolution.
Zelaya, holed up in the Brazilian Embassy surrounded by troops, pulled out of the most recent talks last week.
“Time is running out. We only have a month. We need an agreement as soon as possible,” Shannon said after the U.S. officials met with both sides.
Radio Globo said a deal, including an agreement on letting Zelaya serve the end of his term to January, was close to completion and awaiting approval by the country’s Congress.
