A top official for the United Nations reiterated on Wednesday that the world body remains committed to finding a solution to the Cyprus problem and bridging the island’s ethnic rift.
According to AP News, this commitment was pledged during a meeting between UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo and new Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides.
“We discussed at length the Cyprus issue and we just want to reiterate the commitments of the secretary general to supporting a resolution,” DiCarlo told reporters after her talks with Christodoulides.
She declined to take questions.
After the meeting with President Christodoulides, DiCarlo met with Turkish Cypriot leader, Ersin Tatar, “to discuss further a way forward.”
On Thursday, she will visit the Nicosia buffer zone and will fly with a helicopter along the ceasefire line from Nicosia to Famagusta. In Famagusta, she will meet with Slovak peacekeepers and she may also visit the fenced-off city of Varosha.
The Mediterranean island is split between the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus and the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).
Proclaimed after Turkey launched a 1974 invasion in response to a Greek-sponsored coup, the TRNC is recognised only by Ankara and covers the northern third of the island.
Source: AP News and In-Cyprus.
