London Calls for Flexibility Ahead of UN Cyprus Talks - Tasnim News Agency

Britain’s foreign secretary called for flexibility and compromise ahead of a fresh bid by the United Nations to heal the decades-old division of Cyprus, a dispute harming ties between Turkey and Greece and energy projects in the eastern Mediterranean.

Dominic Raab represents one of three guarantor countries under a convoluted treaty which granted Cyprus independence in 1960. He and the foreign ministers of Greece and Turkey are expected to attend a three-day summit the United Nations will call in early March on the future of Cypriot reunification talks.

• Peace talks collapsed in 2017.

“Failure to reach a settlement after so many efforts will benefit no-one, so I urge all sides to come to the talks with a willingness to demonstrate flexibility and compromise,” Raab said after meeting Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides in Nicosia, Cyprus’s divided capital.

Earlier, Raab met Cypriot President and Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and was scheduled to meet Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar on the other side of the divided city. Boundaries between the two sides, open between 2003 and 2020, are now sealed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was scheduled to visit Cyprus on Feb. 8, and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu travelled to the island earlier this week for talks with the Turkish Cypriot leadership.

Cyprus, with a combined population of just over 1 million, was split in a Turkish invasion in 1974...