UN Secretary-General`s Special Adviser on Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide, will hold separate meetings with the leaders of the two communities ahead of a joint meeting on Friday.
The UN official arrives in Cyprus on Wednesday and will meet the two leaders, President of the Republic Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci on Friday at 10am local time.
It is the first meeting after the leaders and Eide met last week in Davos with the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Eide’s meeting with President Anastasiades is expected to take place on Thursday after the high level tripartite meeting Cyprus-Israel-Greece that will be held at the Presidential Palace in Nicosia.
Akinci is set to meet Eide on Thursday morning.
Meanwhile, the negotiators of the two communities, Andreas Mavroyiannis and Ozdil Nami, are meeting on Wednesday to prepare Friday`s session.
Government Spokesman Nicos Christodoulides stated last week after the Davos meeting that
the UN Secretary General now has a clear picture about the UN-led peace talks taking place in Cyprus.
Christodoulides said Ban now has a better overview of what is really happening at the negotiating table, is better informed about which issues the two sides have an understanding and where they disagree, as well as which topics they have not touched upon yet.
“Therefore, we believe that the results of this meeting prove how necessary the meeting was,” Christodoulides added.
UN-led talks are currently underway to find a negotiated settlement that would reunite Cyprus, divided since the 1974 Turkish invasion, under a federal roof.
CNA/EC/MM/2016
ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY