The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus (Unficyp) Colin Stewart is continuing contacts with both sides so as to find a mutually acceptable solution over the Pyla buffer zone, it was reported on Wednesday.
Cyprus News Agency cited sources close to the matter assuring that diplomatic efforts were ongoing. The situation on the ground however remains calm with Unficyp forces on the ground are closely monitoring.
Meanwhile assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, Miroslav Jenča is expected to arrive to Cyprus on Sunday.
He is scheduled to hold separate meetings with President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar on Monday.
Jenča’s trip was planned before the assault on Unficyp peacekeeping forces last week, which drew global condemnation.
The UN described it a violation of international law, while the UN security council said it expected “an immediate end to the illegal actions of the Turkish side”.
Part of Jenča’s aim is to assess the possibility of Christodoulides and Tatar having a joint meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in New York next month.
Tatar had previously turned down Christodoulides’ proposal to have a common meeting with Jenča during his upcoming visit.
The UN official on Tuesday will take a helicopter from Nicosia to the buffer zone in Famagusta where he will meet Slovak peacekeeping forces, before he departs from Cyprus.
Last week 12 UN peacekeepers were violently pushed back from their positions in the buffer zone by Turkish Cypriot military and police in plain clothes. One was punched in the face and three treated for minor injuries, after they tried to block the unauthorised construction of a road through the buffer zone between the mixed village of Pyla and Arsos by Turkish Cypriot authorities.
UN vehicles which were blocking access to the road were dragged out of the way by tractors, while other vehicles were rammed off the road.