United Nations special representative in Cyprus Colin Stewart on Wednesday said the “courage to make compromises” on the part of political leadership is what is required to solve the Cyprus problem.

In a lecture at the Costas and Rita Severis foundation in Nicosia, he confirmed that he is to leave his post to return to Canada in August but said he would be “watching from the sidelines with a lot of hope” thereafter.

“I do think the Cyprus problem is solvable, and there are a lot of people who want it to be solved, and that gives me hope. Whether it will or not, I cannot say, because I think the big obstacle, the thing that is needed, is the courage of political leaders to make compromises,” he said.

“There is no such thing as a negotiated settlement without compromise on both sides, and I think leaders have to let go of this idea that they are going to get exactly what they want and they are going to stick to exactly what they want. There is no solution without both sides admitting that it is going to be a win-win on both sides.”

Speaking in specifics about the current state of the Cyprus problem, he said the recent “sustained series of meetings” amounts to a “distinctly different phase than what we have seen since 2017”, when negotiations to solve the Cyprus problem collapsed at Crans Montana.

“The other big outcome, I think, of the Geneva meeting, was a decision to name an envoy. Now, there is a lot of speculation, I do not know exactly when that is going to happen, but we expect it very soon,” he said.

He added that there had been “speculation as to who it is going to be”, and said that he could not confirm anything until it is announced amid speculation that Maria Angela Holguin, who served as envoy last year, may be reappointed.

“The point is that the appointment of an envoy is a very significant step in this effort because it both represents the results of some positive movement, and in and of itself accelerates those movements, so it is both a cause and effect,” he said.

He added, “the fact that we had an envoy in the first half of 2024 was a reflection of some changes that had been happening behind the scenes, and then once we got the  envoy, that moved us into a different type of engagement, and I think the same can be said for the imminent announcement of an envoy once we have an envoy”.

He went on to speak on how progress had been made in a number of areas outlined by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at last month’s enlarged meeting in Geneva, including the creation of a bicommunal technical committee on youth and further activities for the technical committee on the environment.

These two fronts, he said, are “low-hanging fruit”, while he also pointed out that progress was being made by the technical committee on cultural heritage to draw up a list of cemeteries across the island to be restored.

On the matter of demining, he said the issue can be “complicated”, as it “involves the militaries on both sides, it involves people’s psychology about the military threat”, but that at a meeting on Wednesday, he had seen progress.

“I am quite hopeful that the leaders will have something to announce on demining as well,” he said, before moving on to the matter of crossing points.

He spoke of how there has been a “longstanding standoff” on the issue and that both sides’ positions on the matter have become “rather dug in”.

He then moved on to the matter of Pyla, and planned road connecting the buffer zone village with the nearby village of Arsos, which is in the north.

A mutual understanding had been found on the issue and construction briefly got underway, but the UN requested that works be put on hold after reports surfaced in the Turkish Cypriot media that Greek Cypriot construction workers had “encroached on TRNC territory” in November 2023, and works have remained on hold ever since.

“That is also a very significant sticking point between the sides, and I recognise that if we do not go ahead and implement the understanding we successfully negotiated in 2023, then that is going to remain an obstacle,” he said.

He also touched on the matter of why there has been movement on the Cyprus problem of late, and said one reason is the recent “rapprochement between Greece and Turkey”.

This, he said, is “a very important part of the background”.

“It does not solve the Cyprus problem, but it creates incentives for both Greece and Turkey to ensure that at the very least, Cyprus does not become a spoiler, because the bilateral relationship between Greece and Turkey is more important to them than Cyprus is to either,” he said.

Another factor, he said, is Turkey’s relationship with the European Union.

“That is a very complicated relationship it goes back a long way, but at the moment, I think we are seeing renewed interest on the part of Turkey and a renewed interest on the part of the EU, especially since Turkey offered to support an eventual peacekeeping mission in Ukraine,” he said.

He also said the passage of time has helped smooth things over since the disappointment of Crans Montana.

“2017 was a tremendous disappointment to anybody who cares about Cyprus, obviously, and from the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot perspective, it was a great letdown. They felt betrayed, they felt they were left hanging at the table … but on top of 2004, which, as we all know, is also a big disappointment … 2017 was a big pullback,” he said.

He added that the “shaken confidence” caused by those two setbacks mean that there will ne “no quick fix” and “no major breakthrough that is going to solve the Cyprus problem all at once”.

“There are a few major political decisions to be made, but whether or not that will happen, I cannot say. I cannot say that we are any closer to solving the Cyprus problem, I can just way we are moving towards that mountain, and who knows who big that mountain is,” he said.

On this point, he said the UN is “getting signals that this is part of this new mood, that the door is not closed to a mutually acceptable way forward”.

“Now, you can look at that and say, ‘well, really, what does that mean?’. I think it is very significant … and the door is not closed to a settlement that would be acceptable to everybody,” he said.