CYPRUS: Cypriot leaders meet in UN buffer zone to pave way for peace talks

President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci were meeting on Friday at the United Nations compound in Nicosia to find a way out of a 15-month deadlock in Cyprus reunification talks.

“I go to the meeting with the Turkish Cypriot leader with the best intentions to resume a creative dialogue that will lead us to a functional solution of the Cyprus problem,” Anastasiades tweeted Friday.

Cypriot government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou described the meeting as "preliminary” that “falls outside the framework of the negotiations".

The President expects the meeting to help towards the resumption of Cyprus talks, which is the “fundamental objective” at this stage of the peace effort, Prodromou said.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third.

Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations crashed in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana, there has been no talks since then.