The Cyprus problem was one of the issues discussed during a meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry and British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, which took place in Washington on Monday. The meeting aimed at discussing the coordination of the two countries over a series of international issues, as ISIS, the Syrian crisis, the Middle East problem and the recent Russian plane crash.
In joint statements before the meeting, Hammond said that the Cyprus problem was among the issues they would discuss. “We’ll talk about a number of other things as well, perhaps less immediately pressing. Both of us are going in the next days and weeks to Cyprus, a country that’s been divided for decades which is now tantalizingly close to reaching an accommodation and finding a way forward to the reunification of the island. And I know that all of us are doing everything we can to encourage that process,” Hammond noted in his remarks to the press.
Meanwhile the Cyprus problem will be, according to US sources, on the agenda of a meeting US President Barack Obama will have in Antalya with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Kerry will escort President Obama during his visit to Antalya on Sunday and Monday. Obama had a telephone conversation with Erdogan, whom he congratulated over the result of the elections in Turkey. They two Presidents also discussed about the forthcoming summit in Antalya, Syria and the Islamic State.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of its territory. UN-led talks, between Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, began in May this year, with a view to reunite the island under a federal roof.
CNA/AZ/MK/GV/2015
ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY