UK 'optimistic' for Cyprus solution

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) - Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Monday he was optimistic for the chances of a solution to the division of Cyprus.

“This morning I’ll be raising the conversations we’ve had about Cyprus in Geneva over the last few days and talking about some of the leadership that has been shown by both the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities,” he said ahead of an EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels.

“I don’t want to oversell this but there’s a certain amount of optimism that after many decades of paralysis we might be seeing a solution there.”

Last week, Johnson attended talks in Geneva on the reunification of Cyprus in a two-state federation.

Cyprus has been divided into a Turkish Cypriot government in the northern third and Greek Cypriot administration in the south since a 1974 military coup on the island was followed by Turkey’s intervention as a guarantor power. The final stages of negotiations saw the leaders of both communities joined by Johnson, the Greek and Turkish foreign ministers and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The meeting in Brussels will talk about the conflict in Syria and the nuclear energy agreement with Iran, Johnson said.

He described the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran as a “difficult, controversial deal” but one that had stopped Iran from acquiring nuclear technology and was “a deal that we think has great merit and we want to keep going.”