Cyprus Hopeful Ongoing UN Special Envoy Visit Can Bring Concrete Results- Foreign Minister

Cyprus Hopeful Ongoing UN Special Envoy Visit Can Bring Concrete Results- Foreign Minister

Cyprus hopes that the ongoing visit of the UN special envoy for the country, Jane Holl Lute, will yield results and contribute to resuming the island's reunification talks, Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides said on Tuesday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st December, 2020) Cyprus hopes that the ongoing visit of the UN special envoy for the country, Jane Holl Lute, will yield results and contribute to resuming the island's reunification talks, Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides said on Tuesday.

As part of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' new initiative, the special envoy arrived in Nicosia on Sunday evening to hold a series of meetings aimed at restarting reunification talks, following the change in leadership in the Turkish-occupied north of the divided island. Lute will hold separate meetings later in on Tuesday with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and new Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, a right-wing hardliner who advocates the island's partition.

"We really hope that this new initiative will bring concrete results and the only result that can be positive is the resumption of talks from ... the point that they were interrupted the last time in [the Swiss municipality of] Crans-Montana with the aim to reach a bizonal, bicommunal federation as the only possible option for the solution of the Cyprus problem," Christodoulides said at the Rome MED 2020 online conference.

The island country has been split between the Greek and Turkish communities since 1974 when Turkey occupied the northern part. In 1983, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus declared its independence, without being recognized by any country except for Turkey. UN-backed attempts to unite Cyprus have been unsuccessful so far, with the dialogue stalled since the last round of talks in Crans-Montana in 2017.