Nicos Christodoulides

Cyprus's government spokesman says Turkish warships continue to impede a rig from reaching a location off the east Mediterranean island where Italian energy company Eni is scheduled to drill for gas.

Nicos Christodoulides told state broadcaster RIK Monday the rig remains stopped some 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the drilling target off the island's southeastern coast.

A visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Greece later this month will hopefully produce some results in relation to efforts for a Cyprus settlement, government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said on Friday.

Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiades pays a two-day official visit to Moscow on October 23-24, at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to a statement, the President of Cyprus will meet with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Monday and President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

Turkey’s request to annex the Northern part of Cyprus was ascertained on Monday by deputy Prime Minister in charge of Cyprus Affairs, Recep Akdag, who said that such a plan is on the table.

The Cyprus problem, regional developments and bilateral relations with a focus on energy matters were the topics discussed by President Nicos Anastasiades and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in an extensive phone conversation which took place on Tuesday.

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades on Monday evening launched a fiery attack against UN Cyprus envoy Espen Barth Eide accusing him of lying about the failure of the talks in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, earlier this month.

Government Spokesman Nicos Christodoulides says the minutes of Crans-Montana meetings may have to be made public unless the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for Cyprus Espen Barth Eide changes his tune on the collapse of the talks.

Talks aimed at reunifying ethnically divided Cyprus are at risk of collapse because of a possible "international crisis," a United Nations envoy said Thursday, amid tensions over oil and gas exploration off the east Mediterranean island.

United Nations special envoy for Cyprus Espen Barth Eide was in Ankara on Feb. 7 to hold talks with Turkish officials over the ongoing peace talks to bring a lasting solution to the eastern Mediterranean island. 

Eide first held talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Feb. 7. He was later scheduled to meet Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım. 

The Turkish and Greek Cypriot sides were set to present respective maps for a prospective federal Cyprus at peace talks in Geneva on Jan. 11 ahead of a conference that will also include the three guarantor powers as part of the bid to end the 40-year-old conflict.