The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, will bring together the parties to the Cypriot conflict from April 27 to 29 in Geneva for an
“informal meeting”
, his communications service announced on Wednesday February 24.
"The purpose of the meeting will be to determine whether there is common ground for the parties to negotiate a lasting solution to the Cyprus problem within a foreseeable horizon
,
"
it said in a brief statement.
Read also: Cyprus, a hotbed of tension with Turkey
This meeting which will bring together the head of the UN, the two parties to the conflict, as well as Turkey, Greece and the United Kingdom - "guarantors" of the independence of Cyprus since 1960 - had been envisaged for a time for February then then for March.
In recent months, the UN envoy for Cyprus, Jane Holl Lute, has stepped up shuttles between the two parties.
The last official negotiations between Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots conducted under the auspices of the United Nations failed in July 2017. Turkey, Greece and the United Kingdom were already part of them.
Cyprus has been divided since the 1974 invasion of the northern third by the Turkish army in reaction to a coup attempt to reattach the island to Greece.
This small territory, called "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" (TRNC), is recognized only by Ankara.
Elected in October, the leader of the TRNC, Ersin Tatar, is in favor of a two-state solution rather than a reunification of Cyprus.
The Republic of Cyprus, the only internationally recognized one, is a member of the European Union and exercises its authority over the southern part of the Mediterranean island.
Read also: Turkey advances its pawns in the northern part of Cyprus
At the end of January, Antonio Guterres had told the media that the planned meeting would be held
"without preconditions"
.
“The first step is to bring them together, listen to them and see the outcome of this discussion,”
he explained at the time.