UN chief sends personal envoy on new mission in Cyprus

Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 22:16:00|Editor: xuxin
Video PlayerClose

NICOSIA, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- UN chief Antonio Guterres has directed his personal envoy on Cyprus to take up a new mission to sound out the parties about the possibility of restarting the long-standing but stalled negotiations for the reunification of Cyprus, a government spokesman said on Friday.

"It is most significant that a meeting of (Cyprus) President Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci will be followed by a visit in Cyprus of the Secretary General's personal envoy, Jane Holl Lute", government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou said.

His statement was made after the head of the UN peace keeping mission in Cyprus, Elizabeth Spehar, announced that she will meet Anastasiades and Akinci on Oct. 26.

"We are at an important crossroad in Cyprus in respect to the peace process...The coming period will be crucial as the United Nations seeks to gauge the possibilities and modalities for a return to meaningful result-oriented talks", Spehar said.

She made no mention of Lute's visit, but the government spokesman said she will be in Cyprus in the first days of November.

Lute made a sounding mission during the summer months in Nicosia and the countries directly involved in the Cyprus issue - guarantee powers Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom- during the summer months.

Her conclusions, included in a report by the secretary General will be discussed by the Security Council at the end of October.

It suggested that the Secretary General expects clear answers by the parties involved on a blue print he presented to them at a conference in Switzerland which ended inconclusively 15 months ago.

He also suggested that the parties come up with fresh ideas to supplement his plan on how to reunite Cyprus under a federal state solution.

Turkey bisected the eastern Mediterranean island after it occupied its northern part in a 1974 military operation, in response to a coup by the military rulers of Greece.

TOP STORIES
EDITOR’S CHOICE
MOST VIEWED
EXPLORE XINHUANET
010020070750000000000000011100001375448981