President Nikos Christodoulides said he expects Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman to “face the challenges set by some who are trying to create problems” ahead of a meeting of the pair on Friday afternoon.

He told journalists that United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin is “actively entering the game again”, having spoken to her on Thursday.

“She has always been a protagonist in this effort, on [UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’] behalf. She also had a meeting with [Guterres] on the Cyprus issue, but this effort is being strengthened even more following [Guterres’] meeting with the Turkish president [Recep Tayyip Erdogan] and the meeting I had with [him] in March,” he said.

Asked how he expects the UN’s effort to be “strengthened”, he said that “meetings are beginning with a very specific, substantive agenda, with the aim of concluding with the convening of an enlarged meeting which will also have an announcement of the resumption of talks”.

He was then asked about the Turkish Cypriot authorities’ revocation of permission for a pilgrimage to the Armenian Sourp Magar monastery to take place this weekend, and said that as well as that matter, “there are also some other issues, upon which I will of course touch”.

On those matters, he said that “I see a tendency on the part of some to create obstacles to this great effort”.

“So, in this effort, I expect [Erhurman] to face these problems, these challenges, from wherever they come, so as to show both his readiness and the fact that we are moving in the same direction,” he said.