Guterres to decide in ‘due course’ on way forward
The United Nations said Wednesday that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will decide “in due course” on the way forward with regard to Cyprus, after the collapse of reunification talks last month at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana.
“I’m sure that Cyprus will be one of the many issues that will be discussed in the secretary-general’s various bilaterals that he will have during the General Assembly,” the UN secretary-general’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said with regard to the the stated intention of Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades to ascertain, during the General Assembly week in September, whether the UN will play a role in the bid to resolve the Cyprus dispute.
Speaking to reporters at Tuesday’s daily briefing, Dujarric said both the Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot sides “are, right now, in what we would call a period of reflection.”
Commenting on the end of Espen Barth Eide’s tenure as UN special envoy, Dujarric said the “office of the special adviser remains” open and will be headed by the special representative of the secretary-general in Cyprus, Elizabeth Spehar, who also serves as deputy special adviser and chief of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), for the time being.
“As a matter of principle, whenever an envoy is named, it is obvious there is consultation with the parties. We are never going to put forward a name or person that one or more of the parties do not accept. That’s a matter of principle,” Dujarric said, adding that Guterres was clear in the comments he made at Crans-Montana that he remains available should the parties come to him.
