Failure to agree to restart the Cyprus negotiations at the leaders’ social dinner meeting on Sunday evening did not look positive, South Cyprus government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides has said.
“To be honest I don’t think the fact that we don’t have an immediate resumption of talks is a positive development,” Christodoulides told state radio CyBC.
“Even today, we are ready to resume the dialogue, either at leaders’ or negotiators’ level,” he added. “It is a negative development for Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.”
The dinner, which lasted four hours, concluded with no concrete statement regarding restarting the negotiations, nor did either leader express any wish to resume the talks.
Christodoulides said that the leaders had thoroughly discussed all topics on how they had reached the current impasse, and how the talks could proceed on substantive and procedural matters.
“Nothing new was heard beyond what we have publicly heard from the Turkish Cypriot side,” the spokesman said. “We didn’t get the result we desired; that is, the immediate resumption of talks.”
UN Special Envoy to Cyprus Espen Barth Eide will continue his efforts in the coming weeks in an effort to restart the negotiations.
Cyprus Mail