President promoting EU initiative for Cyprus

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President Nicos Anastasiades is promoting an initiative to involve the European Union to avert any new Turkish aggression on the island and create conditions for a settlement ahead of elections in Cyprus, Greece and Turkey.

Anastasiades said he does not expect social meetings, such as the one with the Turkish Cypriot leader during a UN event on Wednesday, would help resume UN-led talks on Cyprus, stalled since July 2017.

“But I hold the latest visit by the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, who has assured that the UN SG’s interest remains active so the necessary conditions for the resumption of the dialogue would be created,” said Anastasiades.

He added: “In this period, no one would expect any development due to elections in Cyprus, Greece and Turkey.”

He hopes UN chief Antonio Guterres’ determination will be translated into the appointment of a special Cyprus envoy.

President Anastasiades said he is promoting “an initiative on behalf of the EU, in collaboration with the UN, ahead of the resumption of the dialogue to avoid any new faits accomplis by Turkey and to prepare the ground so with certain initiatives the EU in collaboration with the UN would play a positive role towards the solution of the Cyprus problem.”

Anastasiades said the first step is averting any new faits accomplis.

The next is to prepare EU-UN collaboration “so that they could present a proposal which, without deviating from the UN resolutions, could form the common basis for reaching a functional and viable solution.”