[Greek PM Tsipras delivers a speech at the launching of an equity fund in cooperation with the European Investment Bank, in Athens]Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Wednesday progress had been made in ending the decades-old stalemate on divided Cyprus, but urged Turkey to drop 'aggressive rhetoric' to reach a deal. "We are optimistic but with prudence and responsibility, as this situation merits, we will continue to work hard...and hope that we have positive results in the near future," Tsipras said in a speech in the Greek parliament. "A precondition to that is that the other side... particularly Turkey, come to negotiations in similar spirit, putting aside aggressive rhetoric and work seriously, and responsibly." Talks in Geneva last week failed to produce a breakthrough over ethnically-split Cyprus, though the three countries which are stakeholders on the island - Britain, Greece and Turkey - agreed to set up the working group to look at security arrangements after these turned out to be a major sticking point.
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