‘Lute will not recommend another informal meeting unless she sees common ground’

The UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Cyprus, Jane Holl Lute, is continuing her consultations to see if there is any common ground to build on, a UN source told CNA on Friday, pointing out that currently there is none.

The same source said there is no requirement for the UNSG to hold another 5+1 informal meeting on Cyprus, adding that Lute would not recommend convening another such meeting unless she sees common ground to build on.

Lute arrives in Cyprus on June 21 in the afternoon. On June 22 she will meet the UNSG`s Special Representative to Cyprus, Elizabeth Spehar. Later on she will meet President Nicos Anastasiades, and after midday the Turkish Cypriot leader, Ersin Tatar, in the north.

On Wednesday Lute will have more meetings that have not been arranged yet. The UNSG asked her to not just speak to the leaders, but also to other people – politicians and civil society – to get the full picture.
She will leave the island on June 24.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, Jean Pierre Lacroix, will arrive in Cyprus immediately after Lute leaves.

He will hold separate meetings with the head of the President’s Diplomatic Office, Kyriacos Kouros as Anastasiades will be in Brussels for the EU Summit. He will however meet Tatar.

Lacroix will also visit the buffer zone to see the situation on the ground and view the fenced off city of Varosha from a distance after being briefed by Unficyp personnel.

The UN source told CNA that during his meetings Lacroix will make two points clear: that Unficyp continues to play a very important role in Cyprus in the absence of a solution, and needs good cooperation from both sides to maintain the status quo, and that everything that the UN peacekeeping force does on the island is impartial.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council will hold a discussion on Unficyp on July 21, one day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to the north on the anniversary of the 1974 Turkish invasion.