Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar on Tuesday said he does not see the United Kingdom to be a neutral guarantor power of Cyprus.

“I wanted the motherlands present at the meeting, while the UK was gradually losing its neutrality, and this has been observed in its relationships with Israel and south Cyprus,” he told the north’s public broadcaster BRT, speaking about participation at next week’s enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem.

“We do not see them as an impartial guarantor country. Turkey and Greece will participate at the meeting with their foreign ministers. The UK will be represented at a lower level. This will happen with our approval, and therefore a 4+1 became a 5+1,” he said.

He added that he “did not find it right” for the European Union to send a delegation to the meeting, and said he will go to the meeting with a “constructive attitude”.

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He was also quickly rubbished President Nikos Christodoulides’ plans to achieve a resumption of negotiations from where they left off in Crans Montana in 2017, saying, “Crans Montana is over for us”, before setting out his prerequisites for negotiations to resume.

“We will go there to talk about the future. We are not going with a status quo but with a new understanding. We are not going with a mentality which has not changed in 50 years and does not provide a solution, we are not going for a federation which was surrendered from yesterday.

“We are going with the demand that they meet our sovereign equality with the ‘three ds’,” he said, referring to his demand of direct flights, direct trade, and direct contacts.

“Both we and the Republic of Turkey are going there comfortably and confidently. We have things to say. We have a position. I will give a speech for half an hour, there will be a dinner in the evening, there will be a meeting between the delegations, and a conference the next day. We will prove ourselves right once again,” he said.

On his position, he said “let’s solve this on the basis of two states.”

“From now on, there will be no united Cyprus, but there will be cooperation. There can be interconnection in electricity. We can also share water. There is also a water shortage there. We are in an earthquake zone. If it happens in Paphos, we will run there. If it happens in our country, they will come,” he said.

Tatar had initially been against British involvement in the talks, having said before his informal dinner with Christodoulides in October that “an environment could be created for a 4+1 informal consultation,” thus seemingly ruling out British involvement in a future meeting.

The north’s ‘foreign minister’ Tahsin Ertugruloglu had said British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had “cast a shadow over the position of the United Kingdom, a guarantor power” of Cyprus when he visited the Republic but not the north in December, adding that it was a “good thing” that Starmer did not visit the north.

“The UK never fulfilled its duty as a guarantor, and it was the UK which opened the door to the Greek Cypriots under the name of the Republic of Cyprus. The UK has an obligation to treat both sides in Cyprus equally, and Starmer should also listen to the Turkish Cypriot side’s perspective,” he said.

The enlarged meeting on March 17 and 18 and will see both Cyprus’ sides as well as representatives of the island’s three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey and the UK, and the UN convene to discuss the Cyprus problem.