FAMAGUSTA GAZETTE – President Nikos Christodoulides has said he will meet United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin before the end of May, as she begins her second mandate on the divided island.
Speaking to reporters, Christodoulides said Holguin’s new term officially begins Monday and that they have “exchanged some dates for a meeting.” While a date has now been set, he said he would leave it to Holguin to announce specifics.
Holguin previously spent six months in Cyprus last year as the UN’s representative in efforts to revive stalled reunification talks. At the end of her term, she penned an open letter to the people of Cyprus, stating, “Too many years have been spent in confrontation; too much time blaming the other side.”
The Colombian diplomat, a former foreign minister, has worked on several high-profile international negotiations and is tasked with assessing whether conditions exist for a restart to peace efforts between the island’s Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities.