UN experts arrive for Iraq security talks

A SMALL group of United Nations experts has arrived on the island to prepare for a crucial meeting next week to discuss the UN’s future role in Iraq.

Experts from New York and officials from the UN humanitarian services in Baghdad will meet here next week, a UN spokeswoman in Iraq told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) yesterday.Speaking from Amman, Véronique Aveau said a small group of five or six people arrived in Cyprus on Friday and that a larger group will arrive soon for next week’s meeting.The UN’s most senior humanitarian official in Iraq, Ramiro Lopez da Silva, will also be present, she said.“Consultations will take place on what the UN should do in Iraq. A report will be compiled and sent to the Secretary-general,” Aveau added.The meeting comes in the wake of the recent devastating suicide bomb attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad that killed 22 people.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.