Senior UN official set to hold key meetings on Cyprus issue
NICOSIA
U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo visited Cyprus to hold key meetings with the island's presidents and is expected to travel to the guarantor powers, Greece and Türkiye.
DiCarlo will meet Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar and his Greek Cypriot counterpart, Nikos Christodoulides, on Feb. 10 in separate meetings on the divided island.
The discussions will address steps that could be taken regarding the Cyprus issue, an U.N. official said, adding that the upcoming broader informal meeting that is expected to be held soon will also be addressed.
An informal five-party meeting on the Cyprus issue is scheduled to take place in Switzerland from March 17 to 19, with the U.N.-led meeting expected to see participation of countries on the island, Türkiye and Greece.
Following her visit to Cyprus, DiCarlo will hold meetings in Athens on Feb. 12 and Ankara on Feb. 13 for discussions on the Cyprus issue as well as other key regional and global developments, the statement said.
Last month, Tatar and Christodoulides discussed the modalities of new checkpoints at a rare meeting hosted by the United Nations in the divided capital Nicosia.
Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the U.N. to achieve a comprehensive settlement.
In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece’s annexation of the island led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the Turkish Cyprus was founded in 1983.
