Holguin to brief UNSG in June, Cyprus President Christodoulides says

UNSG personal envoy on Cyprus, Maria Angela Holguin, is to brief Antonio Guterres about the Cyprus issue probably in the first half of June, President Nikos Christodoulides, said on Saturday.

Replying to journalists’ questions in Paphos, the President said that, Holguin would go to New York to discuss with the UN Secretary General after June 1, probably in the first half of June.

He reiterated that the Greek Cypriot side, was ready for dialogue, “we are not afraid of dialogue, we are not worried about dialogue”. “We know what we want, we know where we want to head to and I hope there will either be a positive response from the Turkish side, or an invitation from the Secretary-General himself”, he added.

He noted that he has conveyed to Holguin that he was ready for a meeting.

Asked if there was any response from the Turkish Cypriot side, he said that so far there was no new information or anything he could report.

He noted that the most recent contact with the Turkish side was after the meeting of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. President Christodoulides said he was briefed by the Greek Prime Minister about what had been discussed at the meeting.

He also said that, “if we are truly interested in the resumption of talks”, he did not think he should say more, especially in public.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively. In January, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres appointed María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar of Colombia as his personal envoy for Cyprus, to assume a Good Offices role on his behalf and search for common ground on the way forward in the Cyprus issue.