NICOSA - The UN Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on Cyprus has described as “challenging” the task of preparing and submitting a report to the UN chief on the Cyprus talks by the end of Match.

Speaking to the press after today’s meeting between the leaders of the two communities in the context of the UN-led talks to solve Cyprus problem, Alexander Downer said that the discussion lasted around an hour and a half and concentrated on the issue of property.

He said that the leaders will meet again next Tuesday to continue their discussion on the same issue and decide how to proceed.

Asked about two reports on the progress of the talks – one to be submitted to the Security Council by the UNSG and the other to Ban Ki moun by himself -, Downer said that “the UN is investing a lot of energy in this process and has, of course, over a long period of time”.

He added that “the UN is a complex institution”, noting that “the UN is not just the SG or not just me and the SG”.

“In the context of the Cyprus issue, importantly, there is the SC”, he said, adding that “the leaders like to remind everybody of this on many occasions, there are a series of SC resolutions and the SC needs to be informed by the SG on a periodic basis of all the security issues that the SG deals with”.

He went on to say that he orally briefed the members of the SC after the Greentree meeting between the SG and the two community leaders, noting that UNSG would produce his own report for them.

“I have given them an oral briefing but he would like to provide a report and I think that is appropriate. I mean, they would like to receive a report and they want to read what the SG has to say”, he added.

In addition, he said that during the Greentree meeting, the SG and the UN team thought that “it would be useful if I provided a report to the SG”.

“This is not a report to the SC, this is a report from me to the SG at the end of March on the way forward, so I’ll be doing that”, he said.

Asked if he could elaborate on that report, he replied: “I’ll elaborate on it at the time. Today is late February so in a month or so, I’ll be turning my mind to this challenging task of producing this report”.

“But I don’t know what it will say. I simply can’t speculate on it at this stage”, he added.
Asked what the leaders are doing now since they have already discussed everything regarding the property issue, he said that “there has been exchange of data and so on. So, that obviously is a context for discussion”.

“They also exchanged papers on property some time ago during the Greentree II meeting so that is also a basis for the discussion”, he concluded.