UN says Cyprus peace talks to resume on February 11

NICOSIA - The United Nations announced on Saturday that Cyprus peace talks will resume on February 11 after a break of over 19 months.

A United Nations statement issued in Nicosia said the leaders of estranged Greek and Turkish Cypriots had notified their acceptance of a joint statement setting out the basic principles of a Cyprus solution.

The statement said Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu will meet in a United Nations compound in the buffer zone separating the Greek and Turkish Cypriot regions.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 after a Turkish intervention which followed a coup by Greek army officers.

The negotiations were originally scheduled to restart in October 2013, but the two sides wrangled about four months over the wording of a joint statement to be read when Lisa Buttenheim, the United Nations special representative in Cyprus, presides over the first meeting of the two communities' leaders.

The joint statement brokered this week by U.S. diplomats, says that Cyprus will be a federal state with a single sovereignty emanating from the Greek and Turkish Cypriots, a single citizenship and a single international personality.

It also excludes any future union of the island or part of it with another state or the secession of either community from the federal state.

After the inaugural meeting of the leaders of the two communities the negotiations will be conducted by their delegates under United Nations supervision.

The Turkish Cypriot side announced a change of its interlocutor, replacing a hard-liner with a moderate.