A meeting of the National Council has been underway since 10:40 a.m. under President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, who is expected to brief members on the latest developments regarding the Cyprus issue, following last week’s visits to Cyprus by the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, and the EU’s Special Representative for the Cyprus issue, Raffaele Fitto.
Attending the meeting are former President of the Republic Nicos Anastasiades, President of DISY Annita Demetriou, AKEL Secretary-General Stefanos Stefanou, ELAM President Christos Christou, DIKO President Nicolas Papadopoulos, President of ALMA – Citizens for Cyprus Odysseas Michaelides, and President of the Direct Democracy, Fidias Panayiotou.
Also taking part are the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Constantinos Kombos, Deputy Minister to the President, Irene Piki, the Deputy Government Spokesperson, Yiannis Antoniou, the Greek Cypriot side’s negotiator, Menelaos Menelaou, the Deputy Director of the President’s Diplomatic Office, Nektarios Sotiriou, and the Director of the President’s Press Office, Victoras Papadopoulos.
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.