If indeed the leaders and the two communities in Cyprus ultimately agree on a settlement deal, then the UN role on the ground to support its implementation will have to be looked into in detail, the UNSG Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus Elizabeth Spehar has said.
In an interview with the online magazine “Politically Speaking” of the Policy and Mediation Division (PMD) of the UN, which was posted on Wednesday on UN-Cyprus twitter account, Spehar, who also serves as Deputy Special Adviser on Cyprus, said that the Security Council already signaled some time ago that it expected there to be contingency planning for a settlement.
“Some thinking has thus already begun. At the same time, much will depend, first and foremost, on what the leaders will ask of us as well as the contours of the settlement proposal that they will reach”, she noted.
Asked about her previous post with the PMD, Spehar said that based on her experience, today she has an even greater appreciation of the importance of “lessons-learning”, and of identifying and applying best practices.
“This is one of the areas I am interested in looking at in the context of my new assignment in Cyprus. Since the UN has been on the island for many years and we have dealt with many of the same issues over such a long period of time, there is a lot to learn from what we have done in the past, from various perspectives. It just makes sense to be very cognizant of what we’ve done and evaluate that experience carefully as we go forward”, she added.
Spehar assumed duties last June, succeeding Liza Buttenheim.
Cyprus has been divided since the 1974 Turkish invasion. The latest round of UN-backed peace talks resumed in May last year, between Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community Mustafa Akinci. Talks are set to resume in earnest on August 23, after a brief recess for the summer holidays.