To break the talks deadlock, President Nicos Anastasiades is open to the possibility of a meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci if chaired by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
Official sources in Nicosia said if it was proposed by Guterres then such a meeting would be difficult to refuse.
A source told CNA that such an event "cannot be ruled out” and that the president – currently on holiday – “is always open to dialogue”.
Although there is a lack of movement in the UN-backed reunification process the official source said Nicosia’s position “remains steadfast: Resumption of talks through the known UN procedures.”
The United Nations is not expected to make any moves on Cyprus until UN official Jane Holl Lute has completed her round of contacts and file a report to Guterres in September.
Last month Lute held contacts with Cypriot leaders to gauge whether the time is ripe to revive Cyprus reunification talks a year after they collapsed.
She has since had contact with Ankara and will later visit London, Athens and Brussels.
Lute is expected to compile a report on her findings for Guterres who appointed her to see if the sides had narrowed their difference since the failure of a Swiss summit in July 2017.
The last talks aimed at reunifying the island as a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation collapsed in Switzerland a year ago after the UN chief failed to get the parties to agree on a post-settlement security arrangement for Cyprus.
It was the first time Cyprus talks involved the guarantor powers of Britain, Greece and Turkey.
Under the island’s 1960 treaty of independence, the three countries secured intervention rights to safeguard the island’s sovereignty, but the Greek Cypriots want these scrapped while the Turkish Cypriots are reluctant to do so.
The other stumbling block is that Anastasiades wants all Turkish troops to leave the island after a solution is reached while Akinci is opposed to this idea.
The United Nations is reluctant to step in while both sides seem miles apart in finding common ground.
Lute is seen as a UN trouble-shooter sent in to determine whether a yearlong period of “reflection” on the failed talks indicates the climate is conducive for a return to the negotiating table
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded and occupied its northern third in response to a coup sponsored by the military junta then ruling Greece.
Tensions in the region heightened after Nicosia stepped up its search for natural gas reserves, a move opposed by Turkey.
The EU — of which Cyprus is a member state while Turkey is not — condemned Turkey’s actions in the eastern Mediterranean in trying to block oil and gas exploration in Cyprus’ maritime zone.
