Anastasiades briefs Guterres on Varosha threat and EEZ developments

President Nicos Anastasiades on Tuesday briefed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Turkey’s provocative actions both on Varosha and in the island’s exclusive economic zone.

According to government spokesman Kyriacos Kousios, the two had a phone call, where the president explained the negative effects of any effort to open fenced-off town in Famagusta.

“Such an action underlines serious dangers and is the complete opposition to the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and will negatively affect any effort to restart talks from where they left off in Crans-Montana,” Kousios said in a written statement.

Anastasiades also briefed Guterres about Ankara’s latest actions in the island’s EEZ.

He said these actions along with the Varosha reopening efforts were clear signals of Ankara’s plan to abandon the agreed bases for a solution to the Cyprus problem.

“In this framework, the president called for the intervention of the Secretary-General and reiterated his proposal to create a bicommunal committee to prepare a study of the reconstruction of the city, and the return of the legal residents of the closed-off town,” Kousios said.

The president also told Guterres this would be a substantive confidence building measure, which would strengthen the attempts to restart negotiations to solve the Cyprus problem.

Anastasiades reiterated he was ready to restart negotiations from where they left off at the 2017 talks in Crans-Montana and based on the common understanding established at a meeting in November 2019 in Berlin.

Kousios said Guterres listened to the president and assured him he would take the necessary action underlined in the UN Security Council resolutions.