The period from 12 February 1977 to 15 November 1983 marks both the beginning and the end of meaningful political commitment to a bi-communal and bi-zonal federal settlement. In September 1978, having observed that the Turkish side was acting constructively, US President Jimmy Carter agreed to lift the arms embargo on Türkiye and initiated a settlement proposal based on both the 1977 High-Level Agreement and the 1960 Cyprus Constitution. UNSG Waldheim built on this and succeeded in finalising a new High-Level Agreement on 19 May 1979 with the new GC leader Kyprianou and TC leader Denktaş. In essence this agreement confirmed the 1977 Agreement. But, with the gradual recovery from the effects of the 1974 trauma and the insurrection of the Hellenism vision in GC society, the 1977 and 1979 High-Level Agreements started to be labelled as major concessions. This shifted the attention of GC leaders away from a federal settlement to securing international support behind their irredentist objectives, particularly through the Non-aligned Movement. Efforts by TCs to get the talks back on track failed and resulted in loss of faith in federal settlement. Disillusioned and frustrated, on 15 November 1983, TCs declared the TRNC in exercise of their self-determination right.