Cyprus Talks: UN urges rivals in Cyprus to engage with UN on peace talks

The U.N. Security Council has unanimously approved a resolution urging rival parties in Cyprus “to seize the important opportunity” to engage with a new U.N. envoy seeking to determine if the time is right to resume negotiations on reunifying the divided Mediterranean island.

Numerous rounds of negotiations over more than four decades have failed and after the latest talks collapsed last July, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres encouraged a period of reflection. In early July, Guterres asked U.N. official Jane Holl Lute to sound out all sides on whether meaningful negotiations can resume.

The council in Thursday’s resolution extended the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Cyprus until Jan. 31 and said Greek and Turkish Cypriots should engage with Lute and renew “their political will and commitment to a settlement.”

UN envoy Jane Holl Lute arrives at the presidential palace for a meeting with Cyprus’ president Nikos Anastasiades in the divided capital of Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, July 23, 2018. Lute holds talks with ethnically divided Cyprus’ rival leaders to gauge prospects for a resumption of moribund reunification talks.