UN Secretary General's special advisor on Cyprus expressed on Friday his optimism about the newly launched substantive negotiations aimed at reunifying the east Mediterranean island.
Alexander Downer, the former Australian Foreign Minister, however, stressed that there was no doubt that this would be a very difficult process after all.
"There has not been any successful conclusion to the Cyprus problem for many years, therefore it is not going to be a simple and easy process," Downer told a press conference.
He described the atmosphere of the first substantive talks on Thursday between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders as "good, friendly" and the negotiations are "productive."
Cyprus President Demetris Christofias, a Greek Cypriot, and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat met for more than four hours on the issues of governance and power-sharing.
Downer added that he was encouraged by what he had heard not only from separate discussions he had with the two leaders and other political party representatives in Cyprus, but also from his meetings he recently held with officials in Greece and Turkey.
"My sense is that there is the political will that it is time to try to solve the problem," said the envoy.
He said times and circumstances have changed, and history was different.
"My whole experience of negotiations in difficult issues is that there is a time when things can work," Downer said.
Cyprus was divided in 1974 when the Turkish militarily intervened and occupied the north of the island following a coup by a group of Greek officers.
In 1983, the Turkish Cypriot authorities declared the establishment of the breakaway "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," which is recognized only by Turkey.
For several decades, the UN has continuously worked to persuade the two communities to find a solution to the Cyprus issue, which is also a main obstacle to Turkey's European Union membership ambitions.
Christofias and Talat, both seen as pro-settlement leaders, have to work out a viable solution based on the formula of bizonaland bicommunal federal united Republic of Cyprus.
Source:Xinhua
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