Britain hopes for September start to full-fledged Cyprus reunification talks

Britain is "very hopeful" that full-fledged talks to reunify ethnically divided Cyprus will be launched in September, a senior Foreign Office official said Friday. European Political Affairs Department Director Anthony Smith said Britain wants to help the leaders of the island's rival Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities move the United Nations-mediated peace process forward. "We very much hope that negotiations under U.N. auspices will be launched in September and look forward to helping as much as we can," Smith said after talks with Cyprus' Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias. Smith said a reunification settlement must be "by Cypriots, for Cypriots" and that Britain "does not have a plan of its own." Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat will meet July 25 to assess progress in preparatory... [read full story]