UN chief Guterres holds talks in Cyprus to revive peace

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is in Cyprus for his first visit in 16 years, holding a series of high-level meetings in an effort to revive long-stalled peace negotiations aimed at reunifying the ethnically divided island. Guterres held separate talks with Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, and is scheduled to host a joint meeting with both leaders on Wednesday.

The visit represents a significant diplomatic push by Guterres, whose term ends later this year, to assess whether conditions exist to formally restart talks that collapsed in 2017. After meeting with Christodoulides, the Secretary-General described his trip as a visit of solidarity and stated he would do everything possible to support both communities in this important moment. He emphasized that while the United Nations can facilitate, a solution ultimately depends on the Cypriots themselves and the involvement of the island's guarantor powers-Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when a Turkish military intervention followed a coup backed by Greece's military government. The...