UN Secretary – General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide, returns on Wednesday to the island to hold farewell meetings with the leaders of the two communities.
Eide will hold separate meetings on Thursday with Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci. His meetings, in the morning, are expected to be his last with the two leaders, as the Norwegian diplomat will run in his country’s elections scheduled for September 11.
On the same day, Eide will give a farewell reception at the Ledra Palace hotel, in the buffer zone. Both leaders, Anastasiades and Akinci, as well as other politicians, members of the diplomatic community, the civil society and media representatives have been invited to the reception. This will probably be Eide`s last visit to the island in his current capacity as the UNSG`s Special Adviser on Cyprus.
UN-peace talks at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana took place between June 28-July 6 but failed to reach any fruitful results. The talks, under the auspices of the UN, aim at reuniting Cyprus, divided since the 1974 Turkish invasion, under a federal roof.