'Bold leadership' needed to restore confidence in Cyprus talks

UN Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman believes it would take “some bold leadership steps” to restore confidence and move towards negotiations in stalled Cyprus talks.

He said the goal in Cyprus is to reach a bicommunal, bizonal federation of political equality which the two sides have agreed that resources discovered offshore Cyprus should benefit the population of the island as a whole. Turkey opposes the Cyprus government's energy search and has tried to block it.

“I have to recognise, there is great distrust right now, there has been loss of confidence between the two sides because of the collapse of the talks in Crans-Montana,” said Feltman.

"And I believe it would take some bold leadership steps to start to restore the type of confidence that each side needs on the other, for us to move forward again towards any type of viable, sustainable negotiations," he added.

He pointed out: “I think the two sides have agreed that the resources, the offshore resources, should benefit the population of the island as a whole.” These, he said, “are long-term goals obviously and in the short-term, we have tensions to address and we have to find ways to rebuild confidence to get back to negotiations.”

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced the appointment of Rosemary DiCarlo of the United States, President of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and Senior Fellow at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University, as Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs.

DiCarlo succeeds Jeffrey Feltman of the United States, who completes his assignment on 31 March 2018.

“The Secretary-General is deeply grateful for Mr Feltman’s dedicated, inspirational leadership of the Department of Political Affairs and his diplomatic skills in exercising the good offices of the Secretary-General to defuse crises and identify just and durable political solutions around the world.”