Roundup: Cypriot community leaders to resume negotiations ahead of international conference

The leaders of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities have decided to resume negotiations for the reunification of the eastern Mediterranean island, despite initial concerns after an international conference last week failed to reach an agreement on security arrangements, a Cypriot government official said on Friday.

Spokesman with Cypriot government Nicos Christodoulides told the state television that Cyprus's President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci will meet again on Jan. 26.

"They will resume negotiations on all five chapters relating to the internal aspect of the Cyprus problem to discuss issues on which agreement has not been reach yet," Christodoulides said.

An international conference on Jan. 12 brought together the two leaders, guarantor countries Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom and the European Union as an "interested party."

But it failed to agree on security arrangements after a solution.

This is considered to be an almost insurmountable obstacle on the road to a Cyprus solution.

In a bid to salvage the prospects of a solution, the United Nations convinced the parties at the international conference in Geneva to refer the issue of security and guarantees to low-level technocrats, who wrapped up a three-day meeting in the Swiss resort of Mont Pelerin on Friday.

Christodoulides said that the technocrats of the two communities wound up the procedure by meeting alone to make a review of the work done at the plenary meetings on the previous two days.

He said most parties agreed on that how to safeguard external security after a solution is the basic question in the search of an agreement.

"But the parties failed to agree on the instruments needed to address the issue of security and guarantees," he said.

Sources said the issue will most probably be taken up again at an international conference in the first week of February, possibly at the level of prime ministers, but the prospects of an agreement are still dim as the two sides approach the issue from diametrically opposed directions.

Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots insist on the continued stationing of Turkish soldiers on Cyprus, while Greek Cypriots say they will only consider a transitional period for the withdrawal of the Turkish troops.

Turkey also insists on retaining guarantee and intervention rights under the 1960 treaties that established Cyprus as an independent state.

But Greek Cypriots say they would not vote on a solution plan that would give Turkey intervention rights.

Cyprus has been divided in two since 1974 after Turkish troops occupied the northern part of the Mediterranean island in reaction to a coup by the military rulers of Greece at the time. Endit