NICOSIA, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities of Cyprus are not yet ready to resume peace negotiations stalled months ago, a United Nations official clearly implied on Tuesday.
"The United Nations remains available...Once the UN Secretary General hears that both sides are ready with the common approach to move forward, then the UN will be ready to move," the UN General Secretary's special representative in Cyprus Elizabeth Spehar said.
"For the time being we have preliminary discussions," Spehar added.
The Canadian born diplomat who heads the UN mission and peace force in Cyprus was speaking after meeting Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci in the Turkish occupied part of the capital Nicosia.
Sources said Spehar conveyed to Akinci a proposal made by Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades last week to resume the negotiations on the internal aspects of the Cyprus problem from the point they were left off last July.
These relate to governance, power sharing, territorial adjustments and reinstating properties left behind by both Greek and Turkish Cypriots when Turkey sent its troops to occupy part of Cyprus in 1974, in reaction to a Greek junta inspired coup.
But Turkish Cypriot officials, in an apparent change of policies after Turkey blocked natural gas exploration by Italian ENI, said they would return to the negotiations after Greek Cypriots accept Turkish Cypriots as a talking partner over natural gas exploration licensing and resources sharing ahead of any other agreement.
Anastasiades has said it has already been agreed upon years ago that the energy issues will be managed by the central federal government and not the communities and that the proceeds will be shared in an equitable way.
Spehar said that UN Undersecretary General Jean-Pierre Lacroix will be visiting Cyprus later this week to familiarize himself and talk to the Cypriot community leaders on the resumption of the negotiations.
Stefanos Stefanou, spokesman for the main opposition left wing AKEL party told Xinhua in an interview recently that the first step towards resuming negotiations is to avoid stirring up tension.
He said the impasse caused by recent Turkish intervention in the Cypriot exclusive economic zone can only be broken by the resumption of the negotiations, but at the same time the resumption of the negotiations is being blocked by the crisis caused by Turkey.
"Our main preoccupation now must be to prevent an escalation of tensions and bring back normality," said Stefanou who heads AKEL's Press Office.
He said it was very important to restart negotiations from the point they were left more than seven months ago so as to take advantage of important points adopted by the United Nations, such as the termination of intervention rights by the guarantor powers -Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom and agreements on managing of energy resources.
He said the despite the looming crisis, it is still possible to overcome obstacles and resume a productive dialogue, provided that both communities avoid actions which would increase tension.
"We believe that a solution is still possible on the parameters adopted by the United Nations and the agreed basis for a solution, that is a bi-zonal, bi-communal country by evolving the Cyprus Republic into a federal state," said Stefanou.
