NICOSIA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary General's special adviser on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide said on Friday that he has given up his efforts to restart the stalled Cyprus peace negotiations by shuttle diplomacy.
He said in a written statement that he informed the Cyprus community leaders involved in the negotiations that there is no basis for continuing his shuttle diplomacy and he is also informing the UN Secretary General of seeking advice on the way forward.
The deadlock means that two years of negotiations which have produced progress achieved never before in more than 40 years have been put in limbo for an unspecified period.
The latest crisis came on May 17, when Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci failed to agree on the terms of reconvening an international conference in Geneva in a final drive to conclude an agreement.
Eide started a go-between the two leaders, meeting each one twice in a bid to find common ground.
He said in his statement that as both leaders had publicly expressed their desire to reconvene the conference on Cyprus and finalize all outstanding issues, his sole focus was to agree on the modalities by which this could be achieved.
"Unfortunately, despite serious efforts to overcome their differences regarding the modalities for meeting in Geneva, the leaders were unable to find common ground. Without a prospect for common ground, there is no basis for continuing this shuttle diplomacy," said Eide.
President Anastasiades had said after meeting Akinci in mid-May that he had proposed meeting in Geneva with the three so-called guarantor powers of Cyprus -- Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom -- to focus on security arrangements and terminating the guarantees status.
These issues had never been discussed before, and Anastasiades said that agreement on these could make easier an agreement on outstanding differences.
But Akinci said the Turkish side wanted to discuss all remaining differences as a package and branded Anastasiades's proposal as unacceptable preconditions.
The announcement by the United Nations about the end of the efforts chilled public sentiment in Cyprus as a majority of people on both sides of the dividing line had nurtured high hopes for a termination of the partition of the eastern Mediterranean island.
However, a United Nations spokesman in Nicosia said the negotiations have not collapsed but only the effort to convene the Geneva conference failed for the moment.
He said that the process had always been led by Anastasiades and Akinci who made the decisions.
"We need to hear from them how they see the way forward," the U.N. spokesman said.
In a statement prior to the announcement by Eide, Akinci blamed the failure on Anastasiades who, he said, had not accepted discussing all internal issues interdependently, prior to agreeing security arrangements.
Anastasiades said he regretted a refusal by Akinci to hold a joint meeting with Eide on Monday.
"It is even more disappointing because the meeting was meant to make a review of the situation with a view of finding a joint approach," said Anastasiades.
In a further development, Greek Foreign Minister Nicos Kotzias announced in Athens that he agreed with Eide to meet on Monday in Athens to review the situation.
