President Nikos Christodoulides repeated on Tuesday his disappointment with the outcome of Monday’s talks with Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, but said he hoped to announce developments in the next few days.

“I have promised the people of Cyprus that I will do everything possible to create the conditions for the resumption of talks” to solve the Cyprus problem, Christodoulides said on Tuesday, expressing hope that there would be something to announce in the coming days.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Pasydy congress in Nicosia, Christodoulides said the outcome of Monday’s meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar “was of course not our intention”.

“This is why the UN secretary-general, in Geneva, decided to appoint a personal envoy, who will be in Cyprus on May 12,” he added.

“What emerged was basically Mr Tatar’s refusal to discuss or make decisions on issues that we had promised the UN secretary-general,” Christodoulides said, referring to his talks on Monday.

“And all this happened in the presence of the [UN] special representative. It is not an issue of disappointment or optimism. I know the facts better than anyone. This is the reason why we are intensifying our efforts even more and I hope that in the coming days we will have some developments that will help us on this course, not only confidence-building measures, but more so the resumption of talks on the basis of the agreed framework,” he said.

Christodoulides added that what he saw on Monday was that “there was no possibility of taking decisions on issues that we promised the UN secretary-general.”

Asked what made him think things would change, Christodoulides said he promised the people of Cyprus he would do everything in his power to resume negotiations.

The international community, he added, was a significant factor in this effort.

“Things have never been easy, but we have proved in many cases, not just the Cyprus problem, that insistence, clear goals and strategy bring about results,” he said.

The president added that “we are making actions on a daily basis, as we did before Geneva.”

“They were telling us that there would be no conference, they were saying that there would be no personal envoy, they were saying all sorts of things, but developments have proved them wrong – the developments that were the result of our actions,” he pointed out.

Asked if he had an “ace up his sleeve”, the president said “it is not a matter of having an ace up my sleeve, it is not a matter of winning against the Turkish Cypriots or Turkey.”

“We are interested in one thing: We have had the occupation for 50 years. Every day that passes, things get more difficult, the fait accompli is consolidated, but we have the key, we have the strategy, we have the way to create facts that will lead us there,” he added.