NICOSIA, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has asked the parties involved in the Cyprus problem to provide him with specific ideas as to how they would come together again to restart the stalled peace process, a UN official in Nicosia said on Friday.
Elizabeth Spehar, the Canadian UN mission chief in Cyprus and a special representative of Guterres, said she conveyed the request during meetings she had with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, who leads the Greek Cypriots, and Mustafa Akinci, the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community.
She said the meetings were in preparation of further meetings Antonio Guterres will have with Anastasiades on September 22, after his address to the UN General Assembly, and Akinci who leads an unrecognized state entity but "customarily will be at the margins of the General Assembly".
The four-decade old UN led negotiations on Cyprus came to a new impasse at an international conference in the Swiss Alpine resort of Crans Montana, after which the Secretary General sent the parties to reflect on how to move forward.
"And now it seems to be a good time to hear from all of them and to hear their ideas on precisely what their plans are for moving forward. The S.G. would be very interested in particular to hear concrete ideas of how the parties could come together," Spehar said.
The United Nations has said the two sides came as close together over the past 30 months as never before. But they failed to reach a final agreement at the Swiss resort of Crans Montana with each one blaming the other.
