NICOSIA, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades has dismissed speculation that peace negotiations to end the partition of the eastern Mediterranean island have collapsed after disagreement on how to move forward.
"I don't see how the negotiations can collapse when the aim is to find a solution. If the target by both communities is to reach what has been agreed in 2008 -- a solution based on United Nations resolutions, I do not see how these can collapse," Anastasiades told Xinhua in an interview on Tuesday.
Anastasiades, acting in his capacity as leader of Greek Cypriots, has been talking with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci for two years on how to reunite Cyprus after it was partitioned in 1974.
Turkey occupied part of the territory of Cyprus in reaction to a coup by the military rulers of Greece, leading to one of the most intractable international problems and one of the longest issues on the United Nations agenda.
The two community leaders achieved progress on outstanding issues in negotiations that have been going for over 40 years.
However, talks stalled on territorial adjustments and on how the communities would share power in a federal state.
The UN Secretary General's special adviser Espen Barth Eide gave up efforts last week to move the peace talks forward when Anastasiades and Akinci disagreed on the terms of an international conference on Cyprus.
Eide, former foreign minister of Norway, met Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara on Tuesday, after he had two hours of talks with Greece's Foreign Minister Nicos Kotzias in Athens on Monday.
Eide tweeted that he discussed the prospects of reconvening a conference on Cyprus, but neither he nor Cavusoglu gave a hint on developments since.
Greece and Turkey along with Britain obtained guarantee rights over Cyprus when the island became independent in 1960.
NATO members Greece and Turkey are diametrically opposed on continuing the guarantee system.
Mindful that a solution that would provide for Turkish military presence on Cyprus does not stand a chance to be approved by Greek Cypriots, President Anastasiades proposed on May 17 that a conference on Cyprus should be reconvened in Geneva to discuss security as a matter of priority.
"This issue has never been discussed up to now and we do not know what Turkey's stance would be. This is the only issue on which Turkey has to make a move and we want to know whether its statements about wanting a solution are sincere," Anastasiades said.
But his proposal was met with resistance by Akinci, who said Anastasiades raised preconditions. He said they should deal with all internal chapters before touching upon security.
Anastasiades said his proposal was not a procedural one but one of substance, as progress on security would facilitate agreement on other outstanding issues.
"One cannot make predictions about future developments. But provided that all parties have the same target, one cannot say that the talks have reached their end," he said.
Analysts watching developments in Cyprus for many years say that players having a stake in a solution would not like to see so much progress being squandered and will move after a while to bring the parties back to the negotiating table.
