Negotiator of the Greek Cypriot side Menelaos Menelaou and Mehmet Dana, representative of the Turkish Cypriot leader met Friday in preparation for next week’s meeting of the two leaders, the UN offices in Cyprus said.
In a post on X, the UN said that earlier today, the representatives of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Menelaos Menelaou and Mehmet Dana, respectively, and their teams met under the auspices of the UN Good Offices Mission, and at the direction of the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General on Cyprus.
The discussion was held in preparation for the upcoming meeting of the leaders next week, it said.
The two leaders are to meet on Tuesday.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results due to Turkish intransigence. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose term nears its end, announced he would convene another meeting in broader format, after adequate preparation, but gave no timeline. He secured to that end the consensus of both sides and of the guarantor powers. María Angela Holguín, Guterres’ Personal Envoy on Cyprus, is tasked to engage with the parties. Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto acts as the European Commission’s Special Representative for Cyprus, succeeding EU special envoy Johannes Hahn.