In a unanimously adopted resolution, Council members urged both sides to further implement confidence-building measures and move towards the establishment of “mutually-acceptable steps,” including military confidence-building measures and the opening of crossing points that, they added, could potentially “contribute to a conducive environment for a settlement.”

UNFICYP has been deployed on the Mediterranean island since 1964, when inter-communal fighting erupted.

Since then, the UN has also been facilitating talks between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leadership, with a view to the eventual establishment of a federal government with a single international personality, consisting of a Turkish Cypriot Constituent State and a Greek Cypriot Constituent State, each of equal status.

In addition, the 15-member Council called on the leaders of both communities to “put their efforts behind further work on reaching convergences on the core issues” and improve the public atmosphere for negotiations.

Photo: UNFICYP