Nicosia

A day after Nicosia pulled out of United Nations-mediated peace talks in protest at apparent attempts by Turkey to encroach on Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the UN’s special envoy for Cyprus on Wednesday called on both sides to focus on the potential benefits of a settlement to the island’s longstanding division.

One day after Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades suspended talks to reunify the divided island in response to Turkey’s plan to search for oil and gas in waters where Nicosia had already licensed drilling, a United Nations official has reportedly urged both sides to avoid further escalation.

Cyprus on Tuesday pulled out of the latest round of United Nations-buffered peace talks in protest at apparent attempts by Turkey to encroach on Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and called on the international community to condemn Ankara’s “provocative behavior.”

Athens has insisted that Ankara show respect for the “sovereign rights” of Nicosia after an attempt by Turkish authorities last week to claim access to certain blocks of Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Greek Cyprus has said peace talks for the ethnically divided island could suffer if Turkey kept on opposing attempts by Nicosia to explore for gas off its southern coast.

Cyprus said on Monday peace talks for the ethnically divided island could suffer if Turkey kept on opposing attempts by Nicosia to explore for gas off its southern coast.

The Cypriot government has licensed multinationals to explore for hydrocarbons in the area and Italy's ENI currently has a platform drill at one site.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades spoke on the phone on Monday in the wake of a move by Turkey to apparently stake a claim to Cyprus’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Cypriot government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said the conversation took place “in light of recent developments.”

Washington is “quietly confident” that Cyprus reunification talks will progress in the coming months, with Secretary of State John Kerry due to visit the island in October or November.

LIMASSOL - Hundreds of mostly Syrian refugees rescued by a cruise liner in the Mediterranean disembarked in Cyprus on Friday, after hours of refusing to budge and demanding to go to Italy.

A total of 345 migrants, mainly women and children, had been plucked from a boat in trouble off the coast of Cyprus on Thursday by the cruise ship.

Financiers in Cyprus, an island divided by war four decades ago, want to set up an Islamic finance hub to spur an economy that hasn’t grown in three years.

The Cyprus Investment Funds Association is calling for the government to sell sukuk to lure investment from the Middle East, CIFSA’s president, Angelos Gregoriades, said in an e-mail interview from the capital Nicosia.