Push for Cyprus peace talks deadlocked

A resumption of UN-backed Cyprus peace talks remains a long way off despite recent optimism, President Nicos Anastasiades said Friday. He told reporters the rival Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot sides were nowhere near agreeing on a roadmap that would allow the long-stalled peace talks to resume. Anastasiades, the Greek Cypriot leader, insists that a joint statement be agreed before the sides sit down to thrash out a peace settlement that has eluded the divided island for nearly 40 years. Asked if the two sides are close to reaching an agreement, Anastasiades told reporters: "We are as far as we are close to it." U.N. envoy Alexander Downer was cagey on Friday after holding talks with Anastasiades on how to push the process forward. "Once there is an agreement to start the negotiations, negotiations will begin. I am not getting into the game of predictions," he told reporters. "These are understandably delicate times and the less we say about the substance of these issues the better," he added. A Turkish official said Thursday that a resumption of the talks suspended since mid-2012 appeared "imminent" following what he called progress in resolving the stand-off. "Both sides are continuing talks. The joint statement is almost ready, waiting for the Greek Cypriots to okay it," the Turkish official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Agence France Presse. Hopes had been high that negotiations would resume last month, but they have stuttered over the wording of a joint statement on basic principles for the new talks. Ankara says the deadlock stems from Greek Cypriot insistence on including in the joint statement key parameters of a settlement, including a single sovereignty for a reunified Cyprus. The foreign ministers of Greece and Turkey met in Athens on Friday and called for a resumption of the Cyprus talks. "Greece supports the initiatives of Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades to outline new confidence-building measures between the two communities," Greek Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos said. His Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu said: "Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots are trying to secure progress on a joint statement," but the Greek Cypriot side also had to show "willingness." "Cyprus must remain a single state, this is very important," said Davutoglu, who is to visit the breakaway self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on Saturday. The eastern Mediterranean island has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied its northern third after an Athens-engineered coup in Nicosia seeking to unite Cyprus with Greece.