Press Releases

The President of the Republic Mr Nicos Anastasiades received today Thursday, January 9^th, 2020, at the Presidential Palace, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative in Cyprus Ms Elizabeth Spehar.

After the meeting Ms Spehar expressed her wishes for a happy new year with new hopes, adding that she had a good meeting with the President during which she briefed him on her upcoming trip to New York and Washington.

She added that she will be leaving for the United States on next Saturday, and said that there will be a Security Council session coming up soon on UNFICYP, based on the Secretary General’s report, that is scheduled presently for the 20th of January.

Ms Spehar also said that “the Secretary General’s report should be out in the next couple of days.”

The UN official added that first she will be going to Washington “to touch base with officials at the State Department, as well as in Congress, and the National Security Council,” and afterwards in New York where she will meet “with senior UN officials, as well as Security Council members, and also member states who are troop contributors or police contributors to UNFICYP.”

She also said that “I hope to have substantive discussions with all of my interlocutors about the situation on the ground and the role of the peacekeeping mission in Cyprus.”

Asked if there are any developments with regard to the efforts for a solution to the Cyprus problem, following the Berlin trilateral meeting, she said “no updates for the moment.”

Replying to a question whether the UN Secretary General’s Special Adviser on the Cyprus problem Ms Jane Holl Lute will be visiting Cyprus in the near future, Ms Spehar said “there is nothing scheduled for the moment to my knowledge.”

(RM/AH/II)