United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin on Monday said that the groundwork is being laid for an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem to be held, involving the island’s two sides, its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, and the UN.

“We are preparing for a five-plus-one meeting with the secretary-general [Antonio Guterres],” she said after meeting President Nikos Christodoulides.

She is due to meet Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman later in the day, and confirmed that after leaving Cyprus, she will travel to both Athens and Ankara, before returning to her native Colombia, and then later travelling to Brussels.

Asked if an enlarged meeting will take place, she said, “yes, it will happen”, but then added that she is as yet unsure of when it will take place.

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Meanwhile, the Cyprus News Agency reported that she will meet Christodoulides again on Friday or Saturday.

Christodoulides had said on Sunday that Guterres has “a very specific plan” for the next steps to be taken in efforts to resume talks geared towards a solution to the Cyprus problem, and stressed that “the effort is underway” for an enlarged meeting to be convened.

Holguin’s visit comes with sources having informed the Cyprus Mail that Erdogan has green-lit the “new initiative” being undertaken by the UN with the aim of bringing about a resumption of formal negotiations on the Cyprus problem.

Erdogan is said to be of the view that the lack of a solution to the Cyprus problem has “unduly cost Turkey through no fault of its own” in recent decades, particularly in light of the fact that Turkish governments led by Erdogan supported both the 2004 Annan plan referendum and the failed negotiations in 2017 at the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana.

The sources said that Turkey’s support of both the 2004 referendum and the 2017 negotiations, both of which were rejected by the Greek Cypriot side, constitute evidence of Erdogan’s “pragmatic and constructive stance” and “will to engage in the hope of securing a solution to the Cyprus problem”.

The question of when a “new initiative” on the Cyprus problem may be undertaken has been ongoing for weeks, with Erhurman having said a month ago that such an initiative will begin in July, following the conclusion of Cyprus’ six-month term as the holder of the Council of the European Union’s rotating presidency.

However, the Greek Cypriot side has insisted that such an initiative is “already underway”, with government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis having said that Christodoulides had “made public this initiative” after he met Guterres in Brussels in March.

Some have suggested that the next enlarged meeting may take place as early as next month, exactly a year after the most recent enlarged meeting was held on July 16 and 17 last year, though it appears thus far that this timeline is likely to be extended.