By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will hold informal talks with Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders in New York in October “to have an exchange on the way forward on the Cyprus issue,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Monday.
Dujarric said both leaders had accepted Guterres’ invitation. Cyprus’ President Nikos Christodoulides told the U.N. General Assembly last week that he was ready to immediately resume reunification talks.
Cyprus was split decades ago in a Turkish invasion after a brief Greek-inspired coup, preceded by years of sporadic violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Reunification talks collapsed in mid-2017 and have been at a stalemate since.
A Turkish Cypriot breakaway state in northern Cyprus, backed only by Turkey, wants a two-state deal where its sovereignty is recognized. Greek Cypriots say the only framework available is that defined by U.N. resolutions calling for reunification under a bizonal, bicommunal federation.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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