UN confident of restarting stalled Cyprus talks

A UN envoy said Friday he was confident an impasse in Cyprus reunification talks will be overcome despite a war of words between the island's rival leaders that has damaged trust.

"My strong sense is that the will is there," UN envoy Espen Barth Eide told reporters after a meeting with Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades.

"We have an issue, there is no way to belittle the fact that we have had probably the most difficult weeks in the process," he acknowledged.

In a concerted effort to bring the leaders back to the table, Eide is to hold talks with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci on Saturday.

UN-backed peace negotiations collapsed last month in a row over Greek Cypriot schools marking the anniversary of a 1950 referendum in support of union with Greece.

"We must not allow this very sustained progress over 22 months to be destroyed by what essentially is an issue outside of the talks," said Eide.

"But I have seen nothing over the last weeks that has suggested to me that it is not possible to overcome the division of Cyprus."

Akinci suspended his participation in the talks in mid-February in protest at the Greek Cypriot parliament's approval of a law on marking the referendum.

The climate of trust has since deteriorated with each side blaming the other over the stalled process.

"Right now trust is not at its best moment," said Eide, a Norwegian diplomat.

"If we are not helping the leaders to overcome this impasse in their own personal trust, it will be difficult to re-establish inter-communal trust," he warned.

The unofficial referendum -- staged before Cyprus won independence from colonial ruler Britain -- overwhelmingly approved union with Greece, or Enosis, but had no legal value.

The amendment to schools legislation, sponsored by far-right party ELAM, calls for secondary students to mark the anniversary by learning about the referendum and Enosis.

The two sides have been engaged in fragile peace talks since May 2015 that observers have seen as the best chance in years to reunify the island.

In January, the United Nations hosted talks in Geneva bringing both sides together for the first time with the three "guarantor powers": Britain, Greece and Turkey.

Much of the progress until now has been based on the strong personal rapport between Anastasiades, who is president of EU member state Cyprus, and Akinci, leader of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

The eastern Mediterranean island has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded the northern third in response to an Athens-inspired coup seeking Enosis.