UN’s Ban sees slow progress in Cyprus talks

NEW YORK, United States

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Cypriot leaders need to speed up ongoing talks to reunify Cyprus, warning a settlement will be harder to reach “as each day passes without a solution”. In a report on renewing the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission in Cyprus (UNFICYP) released on Thursday (May 21st), Ban said he was “disappointed” over both sides’ lack of political will to push ahead with confidence building measures. He also said the Cypriot communities “acknowledge that the status quo is unacceptable and that the process cannot be open-ended”. In the report, Ban recommended that the Security Council extend the UN mandate in Cyprus by six months, until December 15th.