It was ironic that when the UN Secretary-General’s personal envoy, Maria Angela Holguin, early in the year said that the UN would resume its peace initiative after the completion of Cyprus’ presidency of the EU Council at the end of June, President Nikos Christodoulides protested. He was ready to engage in the peace process ‘next week’, he said at the time and could not understand this delay.

Holguin resumed her initiative at the end of the presidency, while the Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited the island at the end of July and held meetings with the two leaders to discuss the way forward. Although the government celebrated that the way had supposedly been opened for the broadened 5+1 conference, the president claiming progress on confidence-building measures was not a requirement, this was not actually the case.

In an interview published on Sunday, Holguin said several things had to happen before the conference was held, the main being for the two leaders to agree on confidence-building measures that they would promote; this was a condition, she said. She also said that the two leaders should meet on a frequent basis and that the two sides should work out the process that would be followed. Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman said he was prepared to meet Christodoulides every week to agree confidence-building measures, which included the opening of new crossing points on which there has been zero progress.

Suddenly, Christodoulides lost his sense of urgency and was no longer in a hurry for the process to move and for the 5+1 conference to be held. He offered to meet Erhurman once on August 26 and the date was confirmed. Considering the two sides have failed to agree on the opening of any more crossings since March 2025, when they started discussing the matter, what is the likelihood they would agree at a single meeting and also come up with other confidence-building measures they would promote?

Sadly, no party is questioning this complete lack of urgency by the president and the big discrepancy between his words and actions. This thankless task has been undertaken by the former Disy leader Averof Neophytou, who appears to be the only Greek Cypriot politician concerned enough to speak out about the president’s passive approach on the Cyprus problem. Neophytou is a lone voice, with neither Akel nor Disy, the traditionally pro-settlement parties, applying any political pressure on the president.

Instead, we hear Elam, on whom the president will have to rely for his re-election drive, declaring that no more crossings should be opened, while Akel and Disy remain silent. This deplorable silence is giving the president and the supporters of partition a free pass. Unless Akel and Disy take a stand about what is happening and apply pressure on Christodoulides he will stay on the road to partition, dictated by Elam.