U.S. Welcomes Agreement in UN Cyprus Talks

The United States warmly welcomes the announcement by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan today that the parties on Cyprus have committed to resume negotiations on the basis of his peace plan and to submit the resulting settlement to referenda in time for a reunited island to join the European Union on May 1.

This step came about thanks to the constructive spirit and political will of all the parties. An extremely helpful proposal to create a deadlock-breaking mechanism was made by the Turkish Cypriot side on February 11 and received a cooperative response from the Greek Cypriot side. This allowed the Secretary General to propose a compromise that was accepted by all the parties.

We are pleased that the parties are seizing this historic opportunity to achieve a just and durable settlement to the long-standing division of Cyprus. This will allow all Cypriots to enjoy the benefits of EU membership as of May 1. The United States will continue to provide all appropriate support to reach a successful conclusion.

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