The United Nations is hopeful of progress and committed to efforts to resolve the Cyprus problem, its undersecretary-general for peace operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said on Sunday.

“We certainly hope for progress. What I can say, however, is that there is a very high level of commitment from the highest echelons of the UN, which has been the case since the beginning of Secretary-General [Antonio] Guterres’ term. The Cyprus issue is a priority for him,” he told the Cyprus News Agency.

He added that the Cyprus problem is also a priority for UN envoy Maria Angela Holguin and special representative on the island Khassim Diagne.

“What I can tell you is that there is a very strong commitment and will to do our best to promote progress. Ultimately, this depends on the sides. There are many issues under discussion. Some of them concern confidence-building measures, which are critical,” he said.

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He added that the UN hopes for progress both on those potential confidence-building measures, and on “the broader picture that this progress can lead to important steps”.

Holguin is next set to visit the island next month to meet both Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman and President Nikos Christodoulides.

Those meetings are set to take place with a view to a planned enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem, which will be attended by Cyprus’ two sides, its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, and the UN, and will most likely take place in New York in January.

It had initially been envisioned that that enlarged meeting would take place this month, but Erhurman elected to delay his first meeting with Holguinfrom the first 11 days of November, when it had initially been pencilled in, until December 5.

The Cyprus Mail understands that Erhurman had chosen to delay the meeting so as to be able to build closer relations with the Turkish government before talks on the Cyprus problem begin in earnest, and as such, Erhurman is set to travel to Ankara on Thursday to meet the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erhurman, elected in an unprecedented landslide victory last month, favours a return to negotiations based on a federal solution to the Cyprus problem – the model also ostensibly favoured by Christodoulides.

However, Ankara has remained outwardly convinced by the prospect, with Erdogan having on Monday repeated his demand for a two-state solution instead.

However, prior to that, Erdogan appeared to be more willing to acquiesce to the idea of a return to negotiations, saying after Erhurman’s landslide victory in last month’s Turkish Cypriot leadership election that the Turkish Cypriots’ will is “highly respected by us”.

“Our relations with North Cyprus will continue as they have been until now under the AK Party government,” he told, referencing his party’s 23-year stint in power so far.