Cyprus peace process

A United Nations envoy will host a dinner for ethnically divided Cyprus' rival leaders in a bid to get stalled reunification talks going again.

A UN statement said Wednesday's dinner will be held inside the UN-controlled buffer zone. The zone separates the island's breakaway, Turkish Cypriot north and the internationally recognized, Greek Cypriot south.

“Greek-Turkish relations are a European issue,” declared the President of the Greek Republic, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, today. “Those who think that international law is the law of the mighty are wrong.

A deal reunifying the ethnically divided Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus can be reached if both sides demonstrate more "flexibility and creativity," Britain's foreign secretary said Wednesday.

With complex peace talks between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots deadlocked, Boris Johnson said Britain stands ready to help.

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades has criticized controversial remarks by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who on Tuesday questioned the legitimacy of the Cypriot flag which depicts the entire island.

"Such comments are unacceptable," Anastasiades said after talks with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in Nicosia on Wednesday.

A peaceful solution on the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus is within reach "with flexibility and creativity," U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said before a visit to the island on Nov. 30. 

"With further flexibility and creativity by all sides involved, we believe a solution is within reach," said Johnson in a written statement issued by the ministry on Nov. 29.

Nicosia has reacted to controversial remarks by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who on Tuesday slammed Cyprus for using its flag as representative of the whole island.

The recent failed Cypriot peace talks in Switzerland's resort town of Mont Pelerin was the most serious setback in the 19 months of negotiations to find a solution to the more than 40-year-old conflict on the eastern Mediterranean island, the United Nations said Nov. 28.

A United Nations envoy says he will employ shuttle diplomacy to help Cyprus' rival leaders get back to the negotiating table after reunification talks broke down last week.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu spoke with United Nations Special Adviser on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide over the phone late Nov. 27 after a recent failure in peace talks.

A British colleague, who has been following the Cyprus problem right from the start in 1963, once said the Cyprus talks were very much like a plane that smoothly takes off every 10 years before making a crash landing each time.