UN Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and Americas Miroslav Jenca arrives to meet with Cyprus’ President Nikos Christodoulides in Nicosia
NICOSIA, Aug 29 (NNN-XINHUA) — A high-ranking UN official met here separately on Monday with Cyprus’ President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar in a bid to restart the stalled Cyprus peace negotiations.
Miroslav Jenca, UN assistant secretary-general for Europe, Central Asia and Americas, was dispatched by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to assess the prospects of resuming negotiations for a solution to the Cyprus problem.
After meeting with Christodoulides, Jenca told journalists that “the most important thing that I would mention is that the UN Secretary General is paying utmost attention to the situation on the island.”
He said that he discussed with Christodoulides ways of resuming talks, adding that “the Secretary General will use all his good offices in order to help this process to find a solution to the Cyprus issue.”
Following meeting with Tatar, Jenca expressed hope that “in the future there will be common ground for the resumption of peace talks for the benefit of all people.”
Jenca’s visit comes more than a week after assaults against UN peacekeepers in Cyprus by Turkish Cypriot personnel as the peacekeepers were trying to prevent the unauthorized construction of a road.
The incident took place inside the buffer zone near Pyla, or Pile in Turkish, a village near the southeastern coast of Cyprus that is inhabited by both Greek and Turkish Cypriots.
Jenca will tour the flare-up area on Tuesday to be briefed on the current situation by UN personnel there. — NNN-XINHUA
