European Parliament president backs UN naming an envoy to help restart Cyprus peace talks

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The president of the European Parliament says she has conveyed the legislative body’s support for the appointment of a U.N. envoy to evaluate the chances of resuming stalemated talks to reunify ethnically divided Cyprus. Roberta Metsola said she personally communicated the position of the European Union’s legislature to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York last month. Metsola was in Cyprus on Sunday for talks with President Nikos Christodoulides. Christodoulides has made it a focal point of his Greek Cypriot administration to resume talks with breakaway Turkish Cypriots. The U.N.-mediated negotiations have remained in deep freeze since the last attempt at a peace deal ended unsuccessfully in the summer of 2017.