The US is clear on its support of efforts to reunify the island as a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation, the US State Department has said.

Acting Deputy Spokesperson Patrick Ventrell said that the State Department did not have a specific meeting readout when asked to confirm, on Tuesday, statements made Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu that the Cyprus issue had been discussed at a recent meeting between himself and US Secretary of State John Kerry in Constantinople.

“You know where we are on Cyprus and our efforts – we support the efforts under the auspices of the UN Good Offices to reunify the island as a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation”, he said, adding that “in terms of a meeting readout, I don’t have anything for you further”.

Ventrell was further asked to state the US position on a letter Davutoğlu sent to Kerry and many other Foreign Ministers in Europe in which he talks about the partition of Cyprus.

“I just said what our position is on Cyprus”, he noted, reiterating that “we support efforts to reunify the island as a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation”.

We have received the letter, Ventrell said, “but I’m stating very clearly here what our position is”.

Cyprus was divided in 1974 when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. UN led talks underway since 2008 where stalled by the Turkish Cypriot side just before Cyprus assumed the EU Council rotating Presidency in July.