A United Nations envoy on Monday began contact with Cypriot leaders on the island to gauge whether the time is ripe to revive Cyprus reunification talks a year after they collapsed.
UN official Jane Holl Lute has been tasked with conducting sensitive consultations with the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders to see if a door can be opened towards a resumption of negotiations.
On Monday she met Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades for nearly three hours and made no comment afterwards.
Later Monday, Lute will cross the UN-patrolled ceasefire line to go north to hold talks with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci.
Lute is scheduled to depart for New York on Tuesday and will return to Europe once dates are confirmed for her consultations in Athens, Ankara, London and Brussels, the Cyprus News Agency said.
She is expected to compile a report on her findings for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres who appointed Lute 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.
Rival Cypriot leaders failed to revive their divided island's moribund peace process after an UN-backed informal dinner date in April – their only meeting since the failed summit.
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.
