Reunification talks are not expected to resume immediately though steps to overcome the cause of the interruption will be taken in the next days, UN Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide said on Saturday.
Speaking after a lengthy meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, the UN diplomat said they were trying to overcome the difficulties caused after parliament endorsed the right-wing party Elam’s proposal to commemorate the 1950 Enosis (union with Greece) referendum in public schools.
Eide added that steps that could be useful towards that direction would be made in the next days but did not provide any further detail.
He reiterated that both leaders were still committed to the talks and there was a strong desire to find ways to resume the talks even if that would not be right away.
“But we hope the sooner the better,” he said.
He said a new methodology should be applied once the talks did resume to speed up results on matters pending for months.
Little progress has been achieved following the conference in Geneva in January, he said.
Eide said they were discussing new ideas on how to organise the time from the resumption of talks to a potential deal, looking at all substantive matters and interdependence in a systematic way.
“We are still working on this and I am not in a position to describe it in detail.”
The UN official suggested that the next few weeks would be decisive for the fate of the talks and therefore whether Cyprus would be reunified.
He urged all parties with influence to use it.
“This is really the time to demonstrate strategic leadership, and real leadership emerges in times of crisis,” he said, adding that it was easy to be a leader when everything was going well.
He said many people must do whatever they can and understand that this was really the time for the big question: “Do we want the island reunited and are we ready to do what is necessary to traverse the final mile.”
Eide said a solution was feasible and there was nothing to suggest it could not be reached. But it could not be achieved without trust between the leaders, he said.
“Some people criticised me for being very optimistic. The reason for the optimism was the trust and will, and the leadership I saw in Mr (President Nicos) Anastasiades and Mr Akinci and the relation between them,” he said.
