NICOSIA, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Cyprus called on United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday to immediately appoint an envoy to probe the possibility of restarting peace negotiations in the divided island.
"Our approach is that the mission of the personality to be chosen by the Secretary General will materialize immediately and without any stipulations and preconditions," Cypriot Foreign Minister Nicos Christodoulides said after talks in Nicosia with his Greek counterpart Nicos Kotzias on Monday.
A spokesman for Guterres announced a week ago that an envoy would be send to the region to investigate the prospects of resuming the peace negotiations that collapsed in Switzerland 10 months ago.
Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, acting as the representative of Greek Cypriots, accepted the suggestion.
But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly demanded that the mission be postponed until after the June 24 presidential election in Turkey, so as not to lose support among nationalist voters.
Kotzias said the issue of how to restart peace negotiations was discussed on Monday and would be further examined at a meeting between Anastasiades and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras who will visit Cyprus on Tuesday.
Their meeting will take place on the sidelines of a tripartite summit between Cyprus, Greece and Israel on energy cooperation and security in the region.
Christodoulides also said that Cyprus welcomed a statement by Erdogan on Sunday that Turkey had never given up its goal of joining the European Union (EU).
"We wish that there will be progress in the relations between Brussels and Ankara and we hope that the statement by Turkey's president will be turned into concrete action, which will involve the application of Turkey's obligations to the European Union," said Christodoulides.
Several factors, including Turkey's relations with EU countries, human rights profile and its occupation of part of Cyprus since 1974, brought its EU accession prospects to a standstill.
Turkish troops occupied the northern part of the island in 1974, invoking intervention rights, after a short lived coup organized by the military rulers of Greece at the time.
