Holguín: Cyprus talks need political will, UN envoy says

United Nations Secretary-General's Personal Envoy on Cyprus María Ángela Holguín said the main obstacle to progress on the Cyprus issue is a lack of political will. In an interview published by the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), she said she hopes the trilateral meeting planned for 9 November will encourage the two leaders to reach agreement on initiatives they discussed in bilateral talks.

Holguín said direct dialogue between the leaders is useful but not sufficient. She said that, to her knowledge, recent meetings made no progress on crossing points, other confidence-building measures or the negotiation method, and that necessary steps depend on the parties' decisions. Describing the situation as both very far from and very close to an agreement, she said changing the long-standing status quo would be extremely difficult.

President Tufan Erhürman and Nikos Christodoulides, leader of the Greek Cypriot administration, are due to meet today in the buffer zone at 11:00, according to the Presidency. The leaders will also meet representatives of bicommunal technical committees.