Mustafa Çağlayan
15 January 2016•Update: 16 January 2016
NEW YORK
A reunification deal in Cyprus is "more than possible", but some complex questions are yet to be settled, the UN chief's special adviser on Cyprus said Friday.
"This is possible. It's more than possible. We see we come towards a possible settlement ... But the last part is always the most difficult part. You may have achieved 90 percent, but the 10 percent that is remaining are not the easy ones, it's the difficult ones," Espen Barth Eide told reporters in New York.
"It's important for all of us to recognize that the weeks and months ahead will be about dealing with some of these essential, core questions that remain unresolved," he added.
Some of these issues include territorial readjustments, security and guarantees, Eide said, adding that they are difficult because "the starting positions of both communities are quite different on these questions".
He praised the approach and leadership of Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akinci and the Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades, saying, "if these two leaders cannot reunify Cyprus, I don't know who can."
"The solution has to be credible, implementable, practicable and sustainable," Eide said, adding that the credibility of a lasting deal would alleviate concerns about security.
The eastern Mediterranean island was divided into a Turkish Cypriot administration in the north and a Greek Cypriot one in the south after a 1974 military coup by Greece was followed by the intervention of Turkey as a guarantor power.
Long-stalled negotiations to find a way to settle the conflict resumed last year following Akinci's election in April.
