UN Seeks Definitive Progress in Negotiations on Cyprus

United Nations, Jan 23. -The United Nations will make a decisive effort this Monday to achieve definitive progress in the reunification negotiations of Cyprus within a few months.The new attempt expects quick and concrete progress and will be headed by UN general secretary Ban Ki-moon in a two-day meeting with leaders of the communities from Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, Dimitris Christofias and Dervis Eroglu.

The three leaders will hold talks in Manhansset, New York, here they had a similar meeting in Oct 2011, after they celebrated others at the UN in New York (Nov. 2010) and Geneva (January and July 2011).

Two days ago, an official spokesman of the UN, Martin Nesirky, said the organization is giving all possible support to the negotiations on the future of Cyprus and hopes that the new exchange will be productive, with concrete progress.

Ban Ki-moon says that with political will and firm commitment, both community leaders can and must achieve the needed negotiations on the Cyprus issue, the spokesman said.

The head of the UN made a call two weeks ago to Christofias and Eroglu to move the discussion forward and reach an understanding before July, when Cyprus will assume the presidency of the European Union.

At this time, the key points of the negotiations are around the distribution of power between the two nations for reunification, the economy, properties and the territorial and security issues.

The Security Council called last month for further progress in the talks and extended for another eight months the mission of UN peacekeepers in that European country.

That contingent is in Cyprus since 1974, after the Turkish invasion that led to the physical and political division of the island. (Prensa Latina)