[Cypriot President Anastasiades speaks during his meeting with Greek PM Tsipras at the Maximos Mansion in Athens]A senior United Nations official says ethnically-split Cyprus has a "historic opportunity" to reunite in 2017 and a meeting in Geneva in early January will be crucial for a peace deal that has eluded the island for decades. Eighteen months of intensive talks between the estranged Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities will culminate at meetings in Geneva starting on Jan. 8. Espen Barth Eide, the U.N. Secretary General's Special Adviser on Cyprus, wrote in the Cyprus Weekly newspaper that Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci had demonstrated political will and leadership to end the conflict.