Cyprus talks dicey; U.N. chief en route

NICOSIA, Cyprus — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is due to return to Cyprus peace talks to push rival sides closer to a deal after Turkey raised the ante Tuesday by insisting that it won’t sign any agreement involving the withdrawal of all its troops from the ethnically divided Mediterranean island nation.

“This is serious business, and [Guterres’] role is important,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana, where talks to end Cyprus’ 43-year ethnic divide are taking place.

The island’s Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said he’s hopeful that there’s enough progress over the next 24 hours to justify Guterres’ return trip to Switzerland on Thursday.

“It’ll become clear in the next days, hours even,” Anas- tasiades said, adding that Turkish proposals deviated from parameters that Guterres put on negotiations last week to nudge them forward.

Word of the U.N. chief’s return came hours after Cavusoglu made it clear that a peace accord would not include a specific, agreed-upon date by which all Turkish troops would have to be pulled out.

“There will be no sunset clause … and Turkish troops will be staying on the island because this is the demand of the Turkish Cypriots,” Cavusoglu said.

Turkey has kept more than 35,000 troops on Cyprus since 1974, when it invaded after a coup mounted by supporters of union with Greece.

Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci rebuffed Anastasiades’ charge that the Turkish side’s security proposals went astray of the framework that the U.N. chief had laid out.