NICOSIA, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Cyprus expects the international community and the United Nations (UN) to work towards the resumption of the Cyprus peace talks, deputy government spokesman Victoras Papadopoulos said Wednesday.
"This is what the government wishes for, because it wants to end Turkey's occupation of the island's northern areas and its consequences," he added.
Papadopoulos added that there should be adequate preparation before the new talks to avoid the failures of the past.
The latest effort to end the 43-year-long partition of Cyprus at a July conference in Switzerland in the presence of the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres ended in failure when Greek and Turkish sides failed to agree on security arrangements after a solution.
Each side blamed the other for the failure.
Turkey maintains about 43,000 troops in Cyprus since it occupied its northern part in 1974, in reaction to a coup by the military rulers of Greece to overthrow the then Cypriot president.
Greek Foreign Minister Nicos Kotzias visited Ankara a few weeks ago at the invitation of his Turkish counterpart and Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to visit Athens early December.
Citing these meetings, Papadopoulos said in a statement: "We anticipate that there will be a preparation for a new conference on Cyprus which will be considered a success."
He also said the Cypriot government's position on the end to the Turkish occupation and the abolition of guarantees had been welcomed by some foreign countries.
He mentioned a recent talk by Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades with Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday.
Macron said after his talks with Anastasiades that France, a UN Security Council permanent member, stood ready to work for the resumption of the negotiations once Cyprus makes such a request.
Cyprus's Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides said in an interview on Monday that any new negotiations would be held after presidential elections and a Turkish Cypriot vote for deputies in January 2018 are over.
