UN Secretary-General`s Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide discussed the state of play to the Cyprus peace process during a meeting with Greek Foreign Minister Evagelos Venizelos in New York, at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

“I had an excellent and very substantive meeting with my good friend the foreign minister and I think we are developing very constructive ideas on the way forward trying to bring some new dynamism into a very old conflict,” Eide said speaking to the press following the meeting.

Noting that he feels “that the start of my assignment has been good,” the UN top envoy said he is well aware that “the difficult issues are ahead of us.”

“We are going to substantive, structured negotiations and I’m very glad to hear that Greece strongly supports my approach on this issue,” he added.

Replying to a question, whether we will be meeting American officials, Eide said he will see Victoria Nuland later tomorrow, adding that he is in close contact with the American side.

He recalled that he met with Russian officials.

“It is interesting that the Cyprus issue while is very divisive on the island it‘s quite uniting in New York in the sense that the Security Council has one opinion namely that there should be a process towards a settlement and they consider settlement the reunification of the island and that is quite important because we are living in times where there is big disagreement on issues like Ukraine, Syria,” he said, pointing out that “on the Cyprus issue the P5 countries are perfectly aligned.”

Responding to a question, Eide said the international support is important but what is even more important is the support on the island by the two communities.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied its northern third.