Nicosia: The UN is committed to a resolution of the Cyprus problem, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary A. DiCarlo said here.
DiCarlo made the statement on Wednesday after separate meetings with leaders of the estranged Turkish and Greek Cypriot Communities in the divided capital Nicosia.
In a statement to reporters, the UN official said she made clear to Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar the commitment of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to a solution of the Cyprus problem, and discussed with him the prospects of resuming negotiations to that end, Xinhua news agency reported.
After meeting DiCarlo, the Turkish Cypriot leader said that his “vision” for two separate Cypriot sovereign states must be accepted before negotiations could restart.
“We discussed at length the Cyprus issue and we just want to reiterate the commitment of the Secretary-General to supporting a resolution of the Cyprus issue,” she said after meeting with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides, who assumed office as new Cyprus President nearly two weeks ago.
Christodoulides said he requested a meeting with Guterres to explain a plan for a close involvement of the European Union in solving the Cyprus issue.
The UN has been involved in the Cyprus peace negotiations for almost half a century. The process, which was aimed at a solution on the basis of a UN-brokered blueprint for a federal Cyprus state and power sharing between the two Cypriot communities, has been stalled since the collapse of a UN-led international conference in Switzerland in 2017.
–IANS
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