UN to vote on peacekeeping force

The Security Council will vote today on a draft resolution that may see the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus being withdrawn.

The US has said that it does not believe the peacekeeping force (UNFICYP) need stay on the island for longer than three months, however the government would like them to remain in Cyprus until at least December.

Government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said that the government’s main aim is a UN resolution on extending the mandate of the UNFICYP. He added that it was not fair for the Council to link UNFICYP mandate renewal to the recent results of the referendum in April and developments to the Cyprus problem, but stressed that the UN resolution was still being discussed.

When questioned if the government was satisfied with the reference in the draft to previous resolutions Chrysostomides repeated that the reference is still under discussion and added that the general reference to all previous resolutions is satisfactory.

Regarding the draft resolution that will be voted on today, which seems to connect an extension of the force’s mandate with a new referendum on the UN plan, Chrysostomides said that UNFICYP’s role is now in the past. “The Secretary-general had in the past intended to re-evaluate the role and authorities of the force,” said Chrysostomides.

He stressed that the important thing was that the resolution is still being discussed and no final decisions have been reached.

“The Security Council is expected to come to a decision some time this evening,” said Chrysostomides and revealed that there are some suggestions to connect it with recent developments.

He said that this seems unjust, but in any case the discussions are still continuing and we will see exactly how the final resolution will be formed.

Chrysostomides said the government did not want previous Security Council resolutions to be watered down.

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