Guterres presses Cyprus leaders to revive peace talks after 9 years
What's next: The UN chief is due to hold joint talks Wednesday in the buffer zone after separate meetings with both sides.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met Cyprus' rival leaders Tuesday in a fresh push to restart reunification talks that have been stalled since 2017. Guterres held separate meetings with President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman before planned trilateral talks on Wednesday in the U.N.-controlled buffer zone dividing the island. Christodoulides wants to resume negotiations from the point where they collapsed in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, under a bizonal, bicommunal federation model. Erhurman, elected last year, has signaled more openness to a federal settlement than his predecessor but wants prior agreement on political equality and negotiation rules.