The UN team in Cyprus is trying to come up with new ideas to progress the Cyprus negotiations says UN Secretary General’s Special Representative in Cyprus Lisa Buttenheim, ‘Famagusta Gazette’ reports.
Little progress has been achieved in the second round of talks which have ended for the summer break. Talks between the two Cypriot presidents have more or less ground to a halt and some observers believe that that negotiations are on the brink of failure.
Buttenheim who met with President Anastasiades earlier this week said that the UN are “thinking about ideas”.
“We would like to try to help prepare the way forward based on agreement between the two sides”, she said.
She went on to say that during the meeting they also discussed the renewal of the mandate of UNFICYP by the UN Security Council, in New York.
Buttenheim pointed to the fact that in the text, among others, the Security Council members “also commend the two leaders for the joint declaration that they adopted”.
I think, she said, “this is extremely important to bear in mind because this is an agreement that has been reached between the two leaders”.
Asked if there were any particular ideas to help progress the talks, Buttenheim said that “we are working on that”.
We have, she added, some ideas and of course we meet with both sides, noting that “we will be sharing our thoughts”.
The point is they have to agree, she pointed out. At the same time Buttenheim expressed the hope “that the meeting on the 2nd September will be a good meeting” and she reiterated that the two negotiators meet again on 26th August. We will be in touch with them, she said.
When asked about the time frame for the next round of talks, she said that she couldn’t predict that, adding that “we obviously would like it to be when the time is ready and I think both leaders would like to see that moment come”.
