Talks in Switzerland this week on Cyprus’s decades-long partition represent the “best chance” to resolve the conflict, the UN mediator said Tuesday.
“It’s a unique opportunity, because after all of these decades of division it is possible, it is possible to solve, and I really hope that this is the spirit by which everybody goes into this meeting,” Espen Barth Eide told reporters in Geneva.
His comments came as rival Cypriot leaders were headed to Switzerland for a make-or-break summit aiming to seal a long-elusive peace deal for their divided island.
President Nicos Anastasiades, the Greek Cypriot leader, and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Mustafa Akinci are to resume the UN-led reunification talks on Wednesday in the Alpine ski resort of Crans-Montana.
They will be joined initially at least by the foreign ministers from the so-called guarantor powers of Cyprus — Greece, Turkey and Britain — along with EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini.
UN Chief Antonio Guterres, who opened the previous round of talks in Switzerland in January, has yet to confirm he will take part this time.
“The opportunity for the reunification of Cyprus is now finally before us,” he said on Tuesday, calling “on all concerned players to seize this opportunity, for Cyprus first and foremost, but also for the wider Eastern Mediterranean region.”
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who was due to attend the conference, also described it as “an exceptional opportunity,” saying a lasting solution for Cyprus would “bring huge benefits to the whole island and the region.” But a positive outcome is far from certain.
The UN-backed peace talks in January failed to make any headway, and Eide himself warned that “it is not going to be easy and there is no guarantee of success.”
“This is work in progress, and it is hard work. There will be long days and hard work ahead,” he said.

Source: Arab News