UN to consult sides on restarting Cyprus peace talks

NICOSIA, Cyprus – A United Nations spokesman says a U.N. official will sound out all sides involved in efforts to reunify ethnically divided Cyprus to see if conditions have ripened to resume peace talks.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Tuesday that the U.N. chief has asked Jane Holl Lute to carry out the consultations. It’s unclear when exactly the contacts will begin.

Negotiations at a Swiss resort a year ago brought together the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders as well as top diplomats from the island’s guarantors: Britain, Greece and Turkey. But the process collapsed after several days of intensive talks.

Lute is being asked to determine whether a yearlong period of “reflection” on the failed talks indicates the ground is again ready for a return to the negotiating table.