Roundup: UN official warns that time running out for Cyprus solution

A United Nations (UN) official warned on Wednesday that time was running out for a solution to reunite Cyprus, after a negotiators meeting was cancelled on Tuesday due to disputes over historical accuracy.

"We've had a window of opportunity open for quite some time...But it will not remain open for ever and we have to use it while we have it or something less pleasant might happen in this volatile region," said UN Secretary-General's special adviser on Cyprus, Espen Bart Eide.

Eide made his remarks after separate meetings he had with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci in a bid to defuse tensions that unexpectedly sprang up between the eastern Mediterranean island's communities.

"The inter-communal climate is not optimal right now, and this is something that worries all of us because despite the significant progress in this process, the leaders need support of some kind of broader community in order to be able to move forward and go the last mile...the most difficult one," Eide said.

He was referring to high pitched statements made by the Turkish Cypriot community and Turkey after the all-Greek Cypriot parliament voted on a bill amendment last Friday instructing schoolteachers to make a brief mention of a referendum 67 years ago in which Greek Cypriots almost unanimously voted in favor of Cyprus uniting with Greece.

The amendment was introduced by an extreme right party that holds only two seats in parliament, but other parties allowed it to pass as a trade off for the approval of a bill introducing important educational reforms.

In spite of protestations by President Anastasiades that the vote was immaterial and that he did not object to Turkish Cypriots celebrating the anniversary of a Turkish military operation that split the country in two, the Turkish Cypriot side cancelled a negotiators meeting in the context of negotiations for a Cyprus solution.

Tensions mounted when Turkey said that its 1974 military operation in Cyprus in reaction to a coup by the military rulers of Greece was a peaceful operation that put an end to Greek Cypriot dreams to turn the island into a part of Greece. But this statement inflamed Greek Cypriots.

Eide said that the inter-communal climate was something that worried the UN as it may undermine unprecedented progress achieved in 22 months of negotiations.

But he added that despite this setback he remained convinced that it was "perfectly possible to solve this dispute."

Eide said he was encouraged by recent talks he had with Greek and Turkish government officials on security arrangements after a solution.

He added that he did not achieve an agreement between the two sides but he believed that clinching a final settlement was possible.

"A solution is within the realm of the possible if there is enough will and creativity to think outside the box and give new answers to some new questions as well," he said.

Eide also said the UN was about to convene an international conference in Geneva to consider the thorny security issue. Endit