UN’s Diagne briefs Guterres on Cyprus developments

United Nations special representative in Cyprus Khassim Diagne on Wednesday briefed Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the latest situation regarding the Cyprus problem.

The pair met in New York ahead of Diagne’s planned presentation to the security council on Thursday, with the security council set to vote on January 29 on renewing the UN’s peacekeeping force in Cyprus (Unficyp)’s mandate for another year.

Unficyp has a rolling one-year mandate which was most recently extended on January 31 last year, with all 15 security council members at the time, including guarantor powers Greece and the United Kingdom, voting in favour of the motion, which also took stock of the state of the Cyprus problem.

Ahead of this year’s vote, Abukar Dahir Osman, the permanent representative to the UN of Somalia, which took over the security council’s rotating presidency at the beginning of this month, said that no problems are foreseen regarding the renewal of Unficyp’s mandate.

“I do not think there will be any problem. The security council continues to support the secretary-general [Antonio Guterres]’ good offices and remains committed to an approach based on dialogue and de-escalation,” he told the Cyprus News Agency.

He stressed the importance of “respecting the existing regime in the buffer zone” which separates Cyprus’ two sides and described Unficyp’s role to this end as “stabilising”.

He also called for “de-escalation initiatives” and “confidence-building measures which reduce tensions”.

Thursday’s briefing will be Diagne’s first since taking office last year, replacing retired Canadian diplomat Colin Stewart, who had six months ago told the security council of a “deep distrust” between the island’s two sides, which constituted “an obstacle to any agreement”.

Last year, the security council stressed its “full support” for Guterres’ efforts to find common ground, and said it “reiterates the importance of openness, flexibility and compromise in finding common ground with the goal of returning to formal negotiations”.