Progress at the talks determines the period of time that is required and not vice versa, a source of the Greek Cypriot side has told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA).

The source was invited to comment on Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci`s statement that he will convey to the UNSG`s envoy Jane Hall Lute the Turkish side`s position that it is determined not to enter into an open-ended negotiating process and that it favours a process providing for a deadline.

“We do not accept artificial deadlines in the sense that `we shall allow a period of 15 days, and then if we do not succeed a plan B gets underway`,” the source underlined.

“We realise that if there is a proper preparation, mainly as regards the external aspects (of the Cyprus problem), then not a long period of time is required to reach a strategic agreement, if we manage to reach such an agreement,” the same source noted.

It added that “once we have a strategic agreement, then some more months are needed.”

Furthermore, the same source stressed that if the Turkish side abandons “its intransigent positions the Cyprus problem will be solved very quickly.”

The UN announced on July 3 that the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has asked Jane Hall Lute to conduct consultations with all parties to the Conference on Cyprus.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of its territory. A UN-backed Conference on Cyprus in the summer of 2017 in the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana, aiming to reunify the island under a federal roof, ended inconclusively.