Talks on Cyprus fail to display any signs of progress

The Cyprus peace talks appeared to be at a standstill on Thursday after separate meetings held by United Nations special envoy Espen Barthe Eide with Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish-Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci apparently failed to make any substantial progress.

Eide said the UN would back another international summit for Cyprus, but that it was up to rival ethnic leaders to decide whether there was scope for one.

But a new summit could prove elusive, at least for now, as both Anastasiades and Akinci blamed one another for the stalemate.

Anastasiades accused Turkey of a lack of goodwill to reach a settlement. Before yesterday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had described a proposal submitted by Anastasiades to Akinci on Wednesday as "strange and unreasonable."

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov began a two-day...

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