UN to host meeting between rival Cypriot leaders next week

The UN will a host a meeting between rival Cypriot leaders next Friday to try to move closer to a relaunch of reunification talks that collapsed 15 months ago. President Nicos Anastasiades will meet Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci in the UN protected area of the divided capital Nicosia, the government said on Friday. The meeting, to be hosted by UN Special Representative Elizabeth Spehar, will seek to create momentum for a new push to end the island’s more than four-decade division, AFP said. UN chief Antonio Guterres reported to the UN Security Council on Monday that prospects for a Cyprus settlement remain alive. The statement came despite the collapse of what had been billed as a make-or-break UN-backed peace conference in Switzerland in July 2017.