U.S. senator calls two-state deal for divided Cyprus ‘wrong’

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee says the “retrograde vision” of Turkey’s president to cement Cyprus’ ethnic divide by striving for a two-state deal “is wrong” for all Cypriots. Robert Menendez, a Democratic senator from New Jersey, said a peace accord based on two separate states “flies in the face” of U.N. Security Council resolutions as well a decades-old arrangement to reunify Cyprus as a federation. Speaking after receiving Cyprus’ highest honor — the Grand Collar of the Order of Makarios III — at a ceremony on Monday, Menendez said Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots could strike a reunification deal if left to negotiate on their own. He says his goal is to see “the last Turkish soldier leave the island.”