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Spehar to hold meetings with Anastasiades and Akinci on Friday

09/01/2019 11:35

UN Secretary - General’s Special Representative and chief of the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), Elizabeth Spehar, will hold on Friday separate meetings with Cyprus President, Nicos Anastasiades, and Turkish Cypriot leader, Mustafa Akinci, before leaving for New York, where she will brief the UN Security Council on January 22, UNFICYP spokesperson Aleem Siddique has told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA).

The UNSC will convene on January 30 to adopt a resolution for the renewal of UNFICYP mandate for another six months.

Siddique told CNA that Spehar will meet with Anastasiades on Friday at 1100 local time and with Akinci at 1500.

Spehar will leave the island for New York on Saturday January 12. She will hold meetings at the UN headquarters with senior UN officials - the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, and Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations. She will also meet with officials from UNFICYP contributing countries and with members of the Security Council.

Spehar is also planning to hold meetings in Washington with US officials to discuss the Cyprus problem and the renewal of UNFICYP mandate. However, her meetings there have not been confirmed yet due to the US government shutdown.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third.

The United Nations Peace Keeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), comprising military and civilian personnel from various contributing countries, arrived in Cyprus in March 1964 after intercommunal fighting broke out. The mandate of the force is renewed every six months by the Security Council.