Espen

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias has written a book on the recent Cyprus peace talks, in which he criticises UN envoy Espen Barth Eide and shares details and documents unseen by the public.

Kotzias, a former career chief diplomat, played a pivotal role in the latest round of Cyprus talks that ended up in failure last summer.

Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said on Monday that Greece is willing to continue participating in Cyprus reunification talks within the framework of proposals presented by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the Crans-Montana peace conference in July.

UN special representative for Cyprus, Espen Bart Eide, officially resigned a month after the failure to reunify the island. This was announced on Monday by Deputy Official Secretary-General Farhan Hack. Reports BGNES. 

In an attempt to point out the «role» of Mr. Espen Barth Eide regarding the overall negotiation process and especially his last «actions» where he took the blame off Turkey, our compatriot and associate of our electronic newspaper, Nicos Antoniades, sent a letter-complaint against Mr. Eide to all the members of the Norwegian Parliament.

After a farewell meeting with Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades in Nicosia on Thursday, outgoing United Nations envoy Espen Barth Eide said the reunification talks that collapsed last month at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana can only be revived through an agreement between both sides of the divide, and not the UN.

Espen Barth Eide has returned to Cyprus for the final time in his capacity as United Nations special envoy, as he plans to run in September elections in his native Norway.

Eide is scheduled to hold separate meetings with Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci on Thursday morning.

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.

Greece's Foreign Ministry hit out Monday at the United Nations special envoy for the Cyprus issue, Espen Barth Eide, after taking umbrage at comments by the Norwegian which suggested that Nicosia and Athens had not accepted a proposal by Turkey that would have led to the gradual withdrawal of troops from the island.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias accused the United Nations mediator for the Cyprus problem, Espen Barth Eide, of trying to undermine the island's reunification process.

UN Cyprus envoy Espen Barth Eide is set to visit the divided island on Monday, the government spokesman told Active Radio on Wednesday.

One day earlier, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said in Nicosia that Eide had not prepared satisfactory the failed UN-brokered Conference on Cyprus in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, earlier this month.