Cyprus Talks: Both leaders to meet soon as talks move forward ‘slowly, slowly’ - UN

The United Nations Special Adviser on the Cyprus issue, Espen Barth Eide, on Thursday said the reunification talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriots communities were slowly moving forward, and appealed for understanding, explaining that the current deadlock was due to a disagreeable matter that had never been directly discussed before.

Eide, who since on Monday has been engaged in shuttle diplomacy, managed to get the two leaders to agree to have dinner together on Thursday evening, announced the UN after meetings with the two leaders earlier on Thursday.

It was the first meeting between Greek Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cyprus leader Mustafa Akinci since talks broke down in Switzerland on November 22 over disagreements on territory.

“In the entire history of the Cyprus talks we have never had a situation where the two leaders, whoever they were at the time, where ready to directly negotiate territory in the way they are now,” Eide said after talks with Anastasiades.

“And it’s a painful thing because it’s painful both for those who lost lives in the past and lost places and those people who live in the places today.”

Eide said he noticed a strong desire from both sides to return to the negotiating table.

“In the conversations over the last days I feel that ‘slowly, slowly’ as we say in Cyprus we are moving forward and I think that within a reasonably short time we will be able to announce more about what is going to happen in the very near future when it comes to the talks,” Eide said.

Eide, expressed his concern over the developments outside the talks where he saw a decline of trust in the society and a hardening of positions.

He urged the people not to jump to conclusions “because these issues are difficult and small setbacks happen and when we are back on track we are back on track.”

He also appealed to the media to be aware of the role it has to play in inciting the sense of “my side is always right and the other side is always wrong.”

He said, in most cases that is not exactly the full story, adding that people should recognise this was complicated for all parties involved.

Eide said progress was feasible but “what progress means we will see.”

Source: Cyprus Mail