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STORY: GENEVA / CYPRUS GUTERRES STATEMENT
TRT: 01:54
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 7 JULY 2017, CRANS MONTANA, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, Secretary-General António Guterres walks up to the podium
2. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“I am deeply sorry to inform you that, despite the very strong commitment and the engagement of all the delegations and the different parties, the Greek and Turkish Cypriot delegations, Greece, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, as an observer, and, of course, the United Nations team, the Conference on Cyprus was closed without an agreement being reached. I want to express my deep gratitude and appreciation to the leaders of the two communities and to wish the best for all the Cypriots, north and south. I also want to express my deep gratitude to the representatives of the Guarantor Powers and the European Union, and to express my enormous appreciation for the UN team, led by Espen Eide, that has done everything possible to bring closer the positions of the different delegations. Unfortunately, as I said, an agreement was not possible and the conference was closed without the possibility to bring a solution to this dramatically long-lasting problem.”
3. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The conference is closed. That doesn’t mean that other initiatives can not be developed in order to address the Cyprus problem. But this conference was closed, unfortunately, without result. The United Nations role is the role of a facilitator and we will be always be at the disposal of the parties willing to come to an agreement, if that would be the case.”
4. Wide shot, Guterres walks away
The Conference on Cyprus ended in the early hours of Friday (7 Jul), after days of intensive negotiations. The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, appeared before the press at 2:20 am to express his disappointment that the intensive diplomatic efforts over the last eight days in the Swiss resort town of Crans Montana had not yielded an agreement for the future of the Mediterranean island.
Guterres said that he was "deeply sorry" to inform the media that "despite the very strong commitment of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities, the guarantor power, the European Union and the United Nations Cyprus team, the Conference on Cyprus was concluded without an agreement being reached.”
In response to a question, the Secretary-General said that it was still possible that "other initiatives" could yield results for the long-standing conflict between the communities, and that the United Nations continues to be available to facilitate the process. He also thanked the Swiss government for its generosity and commitment to the Conference.
