UN Secretary General’s Special Representative in Cyprus Elizabeth Spehar has asked to hold meetings with the leaders on the island to listen to their views on the current situation in light of the recent UN Security Council meeting and the forthcoming report of the UN Secretary General on the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), UN spokesperson in Cyprus Aleem Siddique has told CNA.
Responding to questions by CNA, Siddique said that after her meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci on Tuesday, Spehar will in due course hold a meeting with Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades, adding that no date has been confirmed yet for this meeting.
Siddique also noted that Spehar`s meetings with the leaders are not related with the UN Special Envoy Jane Holl Lute`s mission but to issues regarding UNFICYP and the Confidence Building Measures (CBMs). He went on to say that Spehar asked to meet with the leaders “to listen to their views on the current situation in light of the recent  UN Security Council meeting and the forthcoming report on UNFICYP.”
Moreover, the UN spokesperson said that Spehar “usually sees both leaders before and after every report on Cyprus.|
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of its territory. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The last round of negotiations, in the summer of 2017, at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana, ended inconclusively.
Jane Holl Lute is currently engaged in an effort and has been holding contacts with the parties involved in the aim of agreeing on the terms of reference as to the methodology of a new negotiating process.
In a statement issued after its meeting on Cyprus at the beginning of May, the UN Security Council urged the sides to agree terms of reference as a basis for meaningful results-oriented negotiations, mindful of the natural window of opportunity presented by the current electoral cycle.
The members of the Security Council also emphasized the need to avoid actions that damage the chances of success and urged the implementation and further development of confidence building measures.
(Cyprus News Agency)
