The UN on Monday rejected suggestions that Secretary General Antonio Guterres had applied different standards to Cyprus and Syria, saying references to parties involved in the Cyprus issue are made when they are considered helpful to advancing the peace process.

UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq was responding to a question from Israeli journalist Mike Wagenheim of I24 News, who compared Guterres’ recent public remarks on Syria with those made during his visit to Cyprus.

Wagenheim pointed out that Guterres had said Syria’s “sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity must be fully respected” and that Israel’s violations of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement were “unacceptable and must stop”.

He contrasted this with the Guterres’ comments in Cyprus, where he spoke of supporting “the Cypriot communities in their search for a comprehensive and sustainable settlement of the Cyprus problem” without mentioning Turkey, “despite its military occupation” in the north since the Turkish invasion of 1974.

Asked whether “Turkey is off limits“, Haq dismissed the comparison, saying the two situations are fundamentally different.

“I would need hours, possibly days, to fully explain the differences between the situation in Cyprus and the situation in the Golan Heights,” he said.

Haq referred to the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and discussions held at the United Nations during the 1970s, saying each conflict has developed within its own legal and political framework.

“Each case has its own dynamics and the positions expressed by the Secretary General are consistent with the policies followed by the UN, essentially, over the last 50 years in each of these cases,” he said.

Addressing the absence of any reference to Turkey in Guterres’ recent remarks, Haq said the Secretary General has referred to “all the different parties involved in Cyprus” on numerous occasions.

“He does it when it is useful to make such reports,” Haq said, adding that Guterres had been in Cyprus with the specific aim of encouraging dialogue between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities.

The comments came after Guterres announced plans to convene another expanded informal meeting on the Cyprus issue following preparations centred on confidence building measures, methodology and substance, with the UN seeking to create conditions that could improve the prospects for progress in future negotiations.

The Golan Heights is a strategic plateau captured by Israel from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and effectively annexed in 1981.

The UN regards the territory as occupied Syrian territory and continues to support the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement, which established a UN monitored buffer zone between Israeli and Syrian forces.