The United Nations has warned that Cyprus reunification talks run the risk of "foundering fatally" if a deal cannot be reached on the ethnically partitioned island by the second quarter of next year.
In a report to the U.N. Security Council, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said peace talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriots could not be dragged into perpetuity and that any prospect of a breakthrough could be hampered by elections in both Turkey and the Greek Cypriot part of Cyprus next year. "If substantive agreement… cannot be concluded ahead of the election cycle, the talks may go into abeyance and there is a serious risk that the negotiations could founder fatally," Ban said in the report, to be presented to the Council on November 30.
The U.N. official said he intends to meet leaders of the Greek and Turkish Cypriots at the end of January where he expected them to come up with a game plan for resolving outstanding problems.
SLUGGISH
Ban's report was intended to give an assessment of negotiations which started in 2008. He said there had been some progress but it was mostly "frustratingly slow".
Some 88 meetings had been held since then but despite bursts of dynamism ahead of important events, the political atmosphere was sluggish overall, Ban said.
"As I have said many times, the talks cannot be an open-ended process. However I fear a critical window of opportunity is rapidly closing."
The talks' goal is a united Cypriot federation on the eastern Mediterranean island.
But while some accord has been reached on power-sharing, the sides are at loggerheads over whether thousands of displaced Cypriots should have the right to regain their property.
Greek Cypriots insist they should; Turkish Cypriots say the arrangement would upset the bi-zonal character of a future federation where each community would be an ethnic majority in their federated zone. Up to 80% of property now held by the Turkish Cypriots belonged to Greek Cypriots.
Ban avoided laying blame on either side, or any threat of a U.N. pullout from Cyprus. The U.N. mediating team is run by Alexander Downer, a former Australian foreign minister, and its peacekeeping force monitors a 180-km ceasefire line.
But in a subtle hint that things could change, Ban said he would conduct a broad assessment of the U.N. presence on the island and make recommendations based on developments.
