“We are approaching this informal multilateral meeting with the aim of ensuring its success—and not only with the aim of ensuring its success as a multilateral meeting, but also, as we often say, the springboard for the resumption of negotiations,” said Government Spokesperson KonstantinosLetympiotis, in remarks made after the Cabinet meeting when asked about the processes underway regarding the Cyprus issue and the resumption of negotiations.

“We are working, the UN Secretary-General and his personal envoy to convene the next multilateral meeting, which, as things stand, is currently scheduled to take place in late July or the first week of August,” said Mr. Leutbiotis.

“I do not currently have any information regarding the organization of another multilateral meeting or the intention to convene the next one. What I am aware of are the efforts of the United Nations Secretary-General, and his own personal efforts,”

This week, he noted, the UN Secretary-General “will also meet with his personal envoy, who will then travel to Brussels for meetings there and return to Cyprus, where she will meet with both the President of the Republic and Mr. Erchourman to brief us on the outcome of these meetings.”

“We hope that all parties will demonstrate the same political will that our side is demonstrating, so that plans can be made to convene the informal multilateral meeting as soon as possible and, following the conclusion of the multilateral meeting, to announce the resumption of substantive negotiations on the Cyprus issue from the pointthey were suspended, always within the agreed framework,” he added.

In response to a journalist’s remark that recently, the Republic of Cyprus had joined the discussion on the issue of the Peace Council and, when asked to comment on a report that a meeting of the Council would take place in Cyprus, the Spokesperson said that “the Peace Council was established to implement the reconstruction plan for Gaza on the basis of United Nations Resolution 2803, which we—not only as the Republic of Cyprus, but which we have supported from the very beginning.”

“The President of the Republic participated in the first conference announcing this plan and had submitted a proposal consisting of eight specific points based on President Trump’s plan for the accelerated reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. The Council for Gaza and Peace, therefore, decided that this conference would take place in our country. “The Republic of Cyprus is certainly neither a co-organizer nor the organizer of this event,” he noted. Mr. Letympiotis also said that the conference “will take place on June 30 and July 1,” but “the fact that the administrative arm of this Council has chosen our country—a country that has demonstrated in practice not only how beneficial it is but also how many initiatives it has undertaken, as well as the effectiveness of these initiatives in providing humanitarian support to the civilian population in Gaza, is of great significance in its own right.”

When asked who would participate, the Spokesperson said that officials would take part, some of whom have already requested meetings with the Cypriot Minister of Foreign Affairs.  

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