The Government of Cyprus has welcomed the Resolution 2506 adopted by the UN Security Council extending the mandate of the UN peace keeping force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) for six more months.
Ambassador Andreas Mavroyiannis, Cyprus’ Permanent Representative to the UN said right after the adoption that Nicosia considers the presence and the function of the force, “indispensable for the preservation of calm and for the prevalence of conditions conducive to meaningful negotiations for the long overdue, settlement of the Cyprus problem.”
“UNFICYP is a small, versatile efficient and most successful peacekeeping force operating under difficult circumstances”, the Ambassador said.
He also announced that earlier today he had a meeting with the President of the Security Council and he had given the required consent of the Government of the Republic of Cyprus for the renewal of the mandate of UNFICYP.
Ambassador Mavroyiannis said that Cyprus thanks all the members of the Security Council, as well as the Secretary General and the Secretariat for their support and understanding.
“We are going to continue doing our utmost for the settlement of the Cyprus problem as soon as possible, for the reunification of our country and the withdrawal of all occupation troops,” he said.
He also stressed once again the importance of the presence of the UN Peacekeeping force in Cyprus “as long as the current abnormal situation persists, as well as the importance of the UN and the international community engagement in a particularly difficult moment of tensions, threats of use of force, and violations of international law in the Eastern Mediterranean.”
Cyprus remains divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of its territory. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks for a Cyprus settlement have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.
(Cyprus News Agency)
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https://in-cyprus.com/cyprus-turkish-provocations-in-buffer-zone-must-be-addressed-on-basis-of-unficyp-mandate/
