Cypriot Rivals Hold Indirect Talks

After two years of refusing to talk to each other, the two leaders of war-divided Cyprus held indirect negotiations through the U.N. secretary-general in New York in an attempt to reunify the Mediterranean island. Glafcos Clerides--the Greek Cypriot leader--and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf R. Denktash each sounded positive afterward, but serious differences between the two sides remain in the 25-year-old dispute over Cyprus, which has repeatedly brought the two NATO allies to the brink of war. Progress has proved impossible in the past primarily because of Denktash’s insistence on recognition for his breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the Turkish-occupied north of the island.