Outgoing United Nations special representative in Cyprus Colin Stewart on Monday said both sides of the island “have to listen to the other”.

“You have to be willing to listen to legitimate concerns and to recognise that everybody in Cyprus has suffered. There is no side that has not suffered,” he said after a farewell meeting with President Nikos Christodoulides.

He said the UN will “continue to lend all of its support to Cypriots” in the pursuit of a solution to the Cyprus problem but stressed that “it is not for the United Nations to solve itself”.

He said he had thanked Christodoulides “for all of his support and cooperation”, and added, “this is an opportunity also for me to thank all the people of Cyprus, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, for all their support for the work of the United Nations”.

He added that “the work of the United Nations itself is to try to facilitate and help Cypriots find a solution to the Cyprus issue.

“I leave having not achieved that ultimate goal, but you can be assured that the United Nations will continue to lend all of its support to Cypriots who must find a solution to the problem,” he said.

Asked if he has any advice for his successor, he said the Cyprus problem is “in a better position now” than it has been in recent years.

“There is… an ongoing engagement, a series of meetings headed by the secretary-general [Antonio Guterres]. We have a personal envoy [Maria Angela Holguin] who is very focused on trying to move things forward,” he said.

“So, my advice to my successor is to continue doing everything that we can to facilitate movement on the Cyprus issue. And, you know, I continue to believe that it’s a solvable issue.”

He was then asked what is required to solve the Cyprus problem, and responded by saying that “the fundamental requirement is the willingness to find some common ground.

“That’s a different thing than trying to win or trying to impose one’s views. And, you know, one of the things that I found disappointing was how little there is in common between the official points of view of both sides,” he said.

He added that “the people of Cyprus have a lot in common, and they have no trouble”, pointing to millions of people crossing between the island’s two sides every year as evidence of this.

“But what is required is that willingness to find a solution that is mutually acceptable. In other words, something that we can all live with. And I see a lot of hesitation to make those compromises because people believe that my side is right and the other side is wrong. And, you know, the response I get to that is people say, ‘yes, but we are right’,” he said.

This, he added, “illustrates my point”.