PRESS STATEMENT ON CYPRUS BY PRESIDENT OF SECURITY COUNCIL

Following is the text of today’s press statement on Cyprus by the President of the Security Council, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser (Mexico):

Members of the Council heard a briefing on 26 February from Alvaro de Soto, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus.  Mr. de Soto briefed Council members on the series of direct meetings between the two leaders which ran from 16 January to 19 February.

The members of the Council recalled and reaffirmed the views which the Council had expressed before the series of direct meetings began.  They welcomed the commencement of regular negotiating sessions under the auspices of the Secretary-General, pursuant to the agreement reached by the two leaders on 4 December 2001; and the engagement in substantive discussions to achieve a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem.

They urged both leaders to approach the resumption of the talks on 1 March in a spirit of compromise and with a sense of urgency and political determination, so as to narrow the differences between them.  The members of the Council share the view expressed by each of the two leaders that it should be the objective to reach agreement by June and that this objective is a feasible one.

They reiterated their full support for the Secretary-General’s mission of good offices entrusted to him by the Council in Security Council resolution 1250.

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