Greek, Turkish community leaders in Cyprus inch closer to solution

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci inched closer to a solution of the long standing Cyprus problem by agreeing to intensify their negotiations, a United Nations official said on Friday.

"The leaders have agreed to meet at least six times during the coming month. The leaders will take an even more direct role in the negotiations," UN envoy Espen Barth Eide said in a statement.

Anastasiades and Akinci had a four-hour meeting on Friday at which they took stock of work done in six months of negotiations between themselves and negotiators.

The two leaders had 10 formal meetings since negotiations were resumed in May and their negotiators met 50 times, with working groups notching up 87 meetings.

"These interactions have created a solid basis for the intensification of talks. The purpose is to seek mutually beneficial solution on issues where divergences remain," Eide's statement said.

He added upcoming meetings will be seen as sessions of a continuous meeting, in which assessments of achievements made or obstacles remaining will only be made towards the end of reunifying Cyprus and bringing together the two communities.

The eastern Mediterranean island was split into Greek and Turkish Cypriot regions when Turkey occupied its northern part in 1974, reacting to a coup engineered by officers of the Greek junta then ruling Greece.

A solution to the Cyprus problem will brighten the prospects of progress in Turkey's negotiations to join the European Union (EU), which have been blocked mostly because of its refusal to recognize Cyprus as an EU member state.

Eide said that while the leaders negotiate in the interests of their own communities and take into consideration the concerns of the other community "in order to reach a settlement that meets the best interests of all citizens of a future, united Cyprus."

In remarks after Friday's meeting, Anastasiades cautioned that the intensification of the negotiations did not mean that the talks would be concluded in November, though he wished that would be the case.

But his spokesman said that November will be a crucial month for the outcome of the negotiations.

Source: XINHUA