UN envoy: Cyprus peace talks unlikely to resume anytime soon

A United Nations envoy said Monday that he sees little chance that talks to reunify ethnically split Cyprus would restart anytime soon after their collapse in Switzerland earlier this month.

United Nations Special Adviser on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide said after separate meetings with the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities that neither side offered hope for a quick return to negotiations.

"I have not heard anything here that suggests that something will happen in the very near future," Eide said.

He said both sides are going through a "cooling-off" period following the failure of 10 days of high-level talks in Switzerland that also involved top diplomats from the island nation's guarantors — Greece, Turkey and former colonial ruler Britain.

Eide said the UN remains committed to supporting a process that would reunify Cyprus...