Ανακοινωθέντα

Το Συμβούλιο Ασφαλείας των Ηνωμένων Εθνών, υπό την προεδρία του Μονίμου Αντιπροσώπου της Δομινικανής Δημοκρατίας Πρέσβη Francisco A. Cortorreal, είχε το απόγευμα της Τετάρτης 23 Ιανουαρίου 2019, κλειστές διαβουλεύσεις για την Ειρηνευτική Δύναμη των Ηνωμένων Εθνών στην Κύπρο (UNFICYP).

Κατά τη διάρκεια των διαβουλεύσεων, τα μέλη του Συμβουλίου Ασφαλείας ενημερώθηκαν από την Ειδική Αντιπρόσωπο του Γενικού Γραμματέα του ΟΗΕ για την Κύπρο και επικεφαλής της UNFICYP κα Elizabeth Spehar, εν όψει της ψηφοφορίας για την υιοθέτηση του ψηφίσματος για ανανέωση της Δύναμης, της οποίας η εντολή λήγει στις 31 Ιανουαρίου 2019. Η ανοικτή συνεδρίαση του Συμβουλίου Ασφαλείας για τη ανανέωση της θητείας της UNFICYP για άλλους έξι μήνες, έχει οριστεί για τις 30 Ιανουαρίου 2019.

Αμέσως μετά από την ενημέρωση, η κα Spehar προέβη στις πιο κάτω δηλώσεις προς τους δημοσιογράφους και απάντησε σε ερωτήσεις τους, ως ακολούθως:

“Elizabeth Spehar: Good afternoon everyone. As you know, I just presented the most recent report of the Secretary-General on UNFICYP and its activities over of the last six months to the Security Council, and I also updated them on developments in Cyprus since the Secretary-General’s last report.

One of the things that I have appreciated very much was the interest of the Security Council members and the strong support of the Council members for Cyprus and for resolving the Cyprus issue, and I very much appreciated their engagement with me this afternoon. There was a very good exchange of views, a number of very pertinent comments from the Council members, and a lot of very important questions that they were asking me as well.

I confirmed to them, as the Secretary-General said in his report that, over the last year and in the last six months in particular, there have not too many positive developments on the island. We know that we have not have talks for more than a year and a half; however, I also highlighted the positive developments that we had in the last six month period. The fact that the leaders met again for a second time in 2018, on the 26^th of October that they agreed on the opening of two new crossing points and that those crossing points did indeed opened on the 12^th of November.

I also underscored as a positive point the fact that Jane Holl Lute, continues her consultations with the parties and that in the period of 14-18 December, she had two rounds of discussions with the leaders on the island.

I thanked the Security Council for its continuous support, both for the peace efforts in Cyprus, as well as the two peace missions on the island, and the efforts of Ms. Lute to support the sides towards arriving at mutually agreed terms of reference, as a common starting point for renewal of negotiations.

I believe also, that from our exchanges this afternoon, the Security Council very much appreciates the views of the Secretary-General with respect to the need to improve the climate and the atmosphere on the island, and to have better conditions for a renewed successful negotiation process. So they were very supportive of additional confidence building measures and more trust building between the communities on the island, and having more direct support for that on the part of both sides, including the leaders.

Finally, I believe that they also were very clear about their appreciation of the role of both the Good Offices and UNFICYP. In the case of UNFICYP, they understood and underscored the importance of our two prompt approaches to creating conditions conducive to a successful negotiation process on the island. On the one hand, continuing to maintain common stability in and around the buffer zone, and in the second instance, in helping to bring the communities together and promoting greater conduct, cooperation, and trust building between the two communities.

Thank you.

Question: When Ms. Lute is expected to go back to the island, is the first question? And the second, if any member of the Council asked for Ms. Lute herself, to give them briefing on the meetings she has in Cyprus and with the other guarantors?

Elizabeth Spehar: Well, Ms. Lute is expected to return to the island in the near future. I think she will decide on her dates soon. So, we shall all soon find about that, and indeed the Council has expressed interest in her work. Thank you.

Question: The ‘Turkish Cypriot Foreign Minister’ was here. He was talking about the violation in the border and saying that UNFICYP was monitoring the developments, but it did not have any much power to stop them. So, they are talking about making UNFICYP more civilian structure rather than military components. Do you have any reaction to that, or do you have any views, or has any member of the Security Council expressed any opinion or asked any information about it?

Elizabeth Spehar: I can simply say that the role of UNFICYP on the ground is not simply to monitor, it is also actively to diffusion tensions in and around the buffer zone. So, as we know we have about 1000 soldiers raid on both ceasefire lines,and they are occasionally tensions that arise because of incidents. Sometimes arising from civilian activity and what UNFICYP does is not only monitor these events, but we also have liaise and engagement military, and we have our UN police who actively diffuse these incidents so that they don’t further escalate. So in terms of the role of our military is very important because, military-to-military contact is important when you try to address these types of issues.

Question: Do you have any idea if the Mission will be renewed for another six months, or a year, or shorter? What is the basic sentiment?

Elizabeth Spehar: Well, I believe will know quite soon because the Security Council is planning, as I understand it, on finalizing the resolution in the next couple of days.

Question: But you don’t know have long it will be renewed?

Elizabeth Spehar: Well, the Council usually looks at the renewal issue in six month increments, because our mandate must be renewed twice a year, as you know.

Question: Is there a different approach of the Security Council on the renewal of the Mission?

Elizabeth Spehar: I detected basically support for the Mission in general terms and we will find out the exact intentions of the Security Council, in I think, a very short days.”

(ΜΛ)