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UN Seeks to Settle Cyprus Dispute
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.N. Security Council has given its full support to Secretary-General Kofi Annan's efforts to reach a comprehensive settlement of the 27-year-old dispute over Cyprus.
U.N.-sponsored talks for the reunification of Cyprus broke off late last year over the refusal of Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash to return to the negotiating table unless his breakaway state is recognized.
A 2,500-member U.N. peacekeeping force patrols a buffer zone between the Turkish-occupied north and the Greek-dominated south. Turkey, which invaded the island in 1974, maintains 35,000 troops in the north and is the only nation to recognize the Turkish Cypriot state..
The peacekeeping mission expires Friday, but the Security Council president, Bangladesh's U.N. Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury, expected it to be extended before then.
The Security Council was briefed Monday by Alvaro de Soto, the secretary-general's special adviser on Cyprus.
Council members ``welcomed and supported'' Annan's intention to continue with the process he initiated in November 1999, Chowdhury told reporters. At that time, both parties agreed to hold indirect talks aimed at preparing the ground for ``meaningful negotiations.''
The Security Council also reaffirmed all resolutions on Cyprus, especially
one adopted in June 1999. It said a settlement ``must be based on a state of
Cyprus with a single sovereignty and international personality and a single
citizenship, with its independence and territorial integrity safeguarded,
and comprising two politically equal communities.''
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