Security and guarantees will come out in a comprehensive Cyprus solution, says UN Spokesman

The issue of security and security guaranties will have to come out in a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem, said Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

In a press conference in Geneva on Thursday, Dujarric was asked if, during the Cyprus informal talks last week in Geneva, the SG believes that the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot delegations and the three Guarantor Power delegations are negotiating in good faith and what is the latter’s view of the Turkish Cypriot leader [Ersin] Tatar’s proposal for a two-state solution.

Dujarric said he had nothing really to add to the talks to what the Secretary-General said at the end of the press conference in Geneva, and said the “answers to your questions are there”.

The SG, he added, will reconvene in a few months after more discussions, another round of informal talks.  He’d asked the parties to come to Geneva for discussions, for open discussions.

To a remark by the journalist that he could not recall, in any of the remarks, any specific reference to a two-state solution proposal from the Turkish Cypriot side and a reference to the occupation troops in northern Cyprus, Dujarric said the “issue of security, security guaranties, all of that will have to come out in a comprehensive settlement”.

He further said that in his remarks, the SG laid out the Turkish Cypriot position as well as the Greek Cypriot position.  “It was clear to all from what he said that there needs to be more talks, so I think, in that sense, he referred to it pretty clearly”.

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 5+1 Informal Meeting in Geneva in April 2021 failed to find enough common ground to allow for the resumption of formal negotiations in relation to the settlement of the Cyprus problem.

UN Secretary – General, Antonio Guterres, has said that he will convene in the near future another meeting of the 5+1, the five plus the United Nations, again with the objective to move in the direction of reaching common ground to allow for formal negotiations to start.