The UNSG’s envoy for Cyprus Jane Holl Lute is expected to return to the island in “the near future”, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative in Cyprus Elisabeth Spehar said.
Spehar was speaking during a press briefing after having presented the UN Secretary General’s most recent report on Unficyp to the Security Council. She said Security Council members were “very clear about their appreciation of the role of both the Good Offices and Unficyp.”
“One of the things that I’ve appreciated very much was the interest of the Security Council members and the strong support of the Council members for Cyprus and for resolving the Cyprus issue, and I very much appreciated their engagement with me this afternoon,” she added.
“There was a very good exchange of views, a number of very pertinent comments from the Council members, and a lot of very important questions that they were asking me as well.”
Spehar continued saying that she “confirmed to them as the Secretary-General said in his report that, over the last year and in the last six months in particular, there have not been too many positive developments on the island.”
We know, she pointed out, “that we have not have talks for more than a year and a half; however, I also highlighted the positive developments that we had in the last six month period.”
To that extent she referred to the fact that the leaders met again for a second time in 2018, on October 26 and they agreed on the opening of two new crossing points and that those crossing points did indeed open on November 12.
“I also underscored as a positive point the fact that Jane Holl Lute, continues her consultations with the parties and that in the period of December 14-18 she had two rounds of discussions with the leaders on the island,” she said.
“I believe also that from our exchanges this afternoon, the Security Council very much appreciates the views of the Secretary-General with respect to the need to improve the climate and the atmosphere on the island, and to have better conditions for a renewed successful negotiation process, so they were very supportive of additional confidence building measures and more trust building between the communities on the island, and having more direct support for that on the part of both sides, including the leaders,” she said.
“In the case of Unficyp, they understood and underscored the importance of our two prompt approaches to creating conditions conducive to a successful negotiation process on the island,” she said, adding that “on the one hand continuing to maintain common stability in and around the buffer zone and in the second instance in helping to bring the communities together and promoting greater conduct, cooperation, and trust building between the two communities.”
Asked about when Lute is expected to go back to the island she said that she is expected to return to the island in the near future. “I think she will decide on her dates soon, so we shall all soon find about that, and indeed the Council has expressed interest in her work,” she noted.
The UN official was also called on to comment on statements by Turkish Cypriot ‘foreign minister’ Kudret Ozersay about making Unficyp a more civilian structure.
“I can simply say that the role of Unficyp on the ground is not simply to monitor, it’s also actively to diffuse tensions in and around the buffer zone,” she stressed.
“We have about 1,000 soldiers on both ceasefire lines, and they are occasionally tensions that arise because of incidents.”
The Security Council is due to vote on renewing Unficyp’s mandate on January 30.
Asked whether there is a different approach of the Security Council of the renewal of the mission this time Spehar said that “I detected basically support for the mission in general terms.”
