Date set for Cyprus peace negotiations to resume: UN

LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

 Peace negotiations over Cyprus between the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot administrations are to resume May 15, the UN's Special Advisor Espen Barth Eide has said.

Eide's remarks came Monday after a meeting between Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akinci and Nicos Anastasiades, the Greek Cypriot leader, on the island.

He said the two leaders would decide May 15 as to the manner in which and how often the negotiations would continue. 

Eide said the meeting was held in a "very" positive atmosphere and the two leaders agreed to support the process in "a strong and resolved way". 

The peace talks have been on hold since October.

In Washington, National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan welcomed the resumption of talks, and reaffirmed U.S. support for the UN-facilitated process.

“We encourage the parties to reach a settlement as soon as possible to reunify the island as a bizonal, bicommunal federation, which would benefit all Cypriots as well as the wider region,” she said in a statement.  

Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots have tried to find a comprehensive settlement to renew their partnership since a joint government on the island collapsed in 1963.

The island has been divided into a Turkish Cypriot government in the northern third and Greek Cypriot administration in the southern two-thirds after a 1974 military coup by Greece was followed by the intervention of Turkey as a guarantor power in Cyprus.

Peace talks were unilaterally suspended by the Greek Cypriot side last October after Turkey issued a navigational telex on behalf of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus for seismic research off the coast of Cyprus.