Roundup: Cypriot leaders entering substantive negotiations: UN official

The leaders of the estranged Greek and Turkish Cypriot Communities have decided to start substantive negotiations to seek a solution to the Cyprus problem, a United Nations official brokering the talks said on Wednesday.

Espen Bath Eide, a Norwegian former foreign minister who acts as special adviser of the UN Secretary General, said Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci will again meet on June 29 to consider proposals by their negotiators.

"Mr. Anastasiades and Mr. Akinci have tasked their negotiators to focus their work on a specific set of core issues across chapters. They will work intensively on this task and report back to the next leaders meeting," Eide said after a four-hour meeting of the two leaders.

Anastasiades and Akinci will try to reunify the eastern Mediterranean island which was partitioned along ethnic Greek and Turkish Cypriot lines when Turkey controlled the northern part of the island in 1974, acting in response to a coup by Greek army officers.

Eide said Anastasiades and Akinci jointly reviewed a document setting out points on convergence and divergence on thorny issues such as governance and power sharing in a federal state, the future of properties abandoned by Greek Cypriot driven out of their homes, the future of tens of thousands of Turkish settlers and territorial adjustments.

"They welcomed the baseline assessment that they had entrusted to the negotiators in their first meeting on May 15, 2015. Upon completing the baseline assessment, the leaders are now entering into the substantive negotiation on unresolved core issues," said Eide.

He added that the leaders agreed that the negotiations will be the centerpiece of their work from now on in search of a comprehensive settlement.

He said they will deal with outstanding issues in "a holistic and interdependent manner."

"They have expressed once again their resolve to move forward without delay and to achieve further progress towards reaching a comprehensive settlement," said Eide.

He also said they talked on further confidence building measures, formulating the mandate for a joint committee on gender equality and appointing its members.

Anastasiades said the negotiations have not yet gone very deep into core issues but added that "the negotiators have done a great job in identifying convergences and divergences on all issues."

"On the 29th of June we actually enter into a substantive negotiation on the chapters that will be before us. Our effort is to find a solution the earliest possible," said Anastasiades. Endit