May says British ready to 'play our part' on Cyprus

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) – The U.K. is ready to do its part to see a successful conclusion to the Cyprus peace talks, Prime Minister Theresa May told the British parliament Wednesday.

“I am hopeful that the talks will be able to continue to come to a solution; we think we are closer to a solution than we have been before,” May told lawmakers, days before she makes a one-day trip to Turkey.

May confirmed she had already spoken to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the Cyprus question.

“We stand ready as a guarantor to play our part in ensuring we can see a successful conclusion of these talks and see the reunification of Cyprus, [something] which people have been working on for some time,” May added.

The British leader will go to Turkey on Saturday and will be received by President Erdogan plus Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.

A British government spokeswoman told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday May had “decided early on that Turkey would be one of the countries she wanted to visit”.

-'Important partner

Describing Turkey as an “important partner” the spokeswoman said defense, security and trade would feature on the agenda:

“This is an opportunity to talk about our cooperation and how we work together on a range of shared challenges.

“Obviously the work that we have been doing to counter Daesh both in Iraq and Syria and the impact of that on countries like Turkey will feature prominently.”

On Cyprus, the spokeswoman said there had been what she described as “useful follow-up talks” following a recent round of high-profile negotiations in Switzerland.

Britain's government “wants to help keep up the momentum that there is at the moment,” she added.

The Swiss talks were also attended by ministers from guarantor powers Turkey, Greece and Britain but ended without agreeing on new borders or the future presence of Turkish troops on the island.

The three guarantors were assigned when Cyprus gained independence from the U.K. in 1960.

As one of the guarantor powers, Turkey intervened in 1974 in response to an attempt by Greek Cypriot militants to unify the island with Greece. Ankara keeps around 30,000 troops stationed on the island.