President meets with party leaders in Troodos

President Nicos Anastasiades is meeting with party leaders today at his residence in Troodos, ahead of a meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci on August 9.

Government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou said the President "will inform political leaders of his own approach to the issue, with good will but also with firm political intentions to resume negotiations from where they have ended."

"He should and will listen to political leaders, their thoughts, suggestions, because the aim should be to bypass Turkey's obstructiveness in trying to substitute the Cyprus debate, if we can forget the six parameters of the Secretary-General of the UN which mean the end of guarantees, the end of occupation troops, in order to get us to discuss other issues," Mr Prodromou said.

Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci told CNA over the weekend that his greatest expectation from the informal meeting with Anastasiades is for tensions to be eliminated and for the ground to be paved for positive developments. Akinci has said that it is his wish and expectation for the meeting to “send positive messages to the people, our communities. But if that is not the case, then I would not want to give people false hope.''