NICOSIA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The resumption of negotiations to reunify Cyprus is at present "impossible", Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said on Wednesday, accusing Turkey and Turkish Cypriots of violating international law and existing agreements on natural gas sharing.
"Unfortunately Turkey, and our Turkish Cypriot compatriots, appear not to be willing (to negotiate) but by resorting to more violations of international law and unacceptable demands make the resumption of talks impossible, at least at the present time," Anastasiades said.
He was addressing parliament after taking the oath for a second presidential term officially starting on Tuesday.
Turkey prevented a drill ship from proceeding to its designated area southeast of Cyprus for a fresh natural gas drilling in early February, claiming that it did so to safeguard the rights of the estranged community of Turkish Cypriots.
Turkey occupied the northern part of Cyprus, moving there almost all of Turkish Cypriots after forcing out Greek Cypriots in a 1974 military operation prompted by a coup organized by the military rulers of Greece at the time.
A breakaway state was set up in the northern occupied part of Cyprus that was recognized only by Turkey which is also claiming intervention rights over Cyprus.
Anastasiades said that he is ready to resume a peace dialogue with Turkish Cypriots if Turkey ceased illegal actions against Cyprus, an EU member state. Turkish Cypriots rescinded "unacceptable positions and demands" over the management of the state's resources.
"I have conveyed the above position to (Turkish Cypriot leader) Akinci via the UN Secretary General's Special Representative Elizabeth Spehar," Anastasiades told the deputies.
He said the management of natural gas resources had been agreed in peace negotiations by his predecessor and the previous Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.
"It has been agreed that the natural resources will come under the jurisdiction of (the future) central federal government and that the proceeds will be distributed among all Cypriots in an equitable way," he said.
Anastasiades added said that legislation is pending before parliament for the creation of a sovereign hydrocarbons fund on the lines of the Norwegian model to handle the wealth from natural gas.
Cyprus owns two known natural gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean, one near Israeli gas beds containing up to six trillion cubic feet of natural gas and one off its southwestern shores with an estimated potential of up to eight trillion cubic feet of gas.
Hopes of resuming the Cyprus peace negotiations now center around a visit by United Nations Undersecretary General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix who arrived in Cyprus on Wednesday.
The main purpose of his visit is to be kept abreast of the UN peacekeeping operation in Cyprus, where one of the oldest international peace army serves since 1964.
Lacroix will meet with government officials, local authorities and community representatives, including President Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, to probe their intentions on continuing their stalled negotiations.
He will report back to Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who said would be available for a new peace initiative on Cyprus provided the two leaders would inform him of a joint plan to move forward.
