UN denies pullout plan from Cyprus

The United Nations on Tuesday denied it was planning to withdraw peacekeeping force from divided Cyprus had its hardline President Tassos Papadopoulos been re-elected.

"Reports that the United Nations intended to pull out of Cyprus in the event of a victory by President Papadopoulos are totally baseless and irresponsible," said Jose Luis Diaz, the spokesman for the U.N. Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).

Local newspaper Cyprus Mail reported on Tuesday that UN was making plans to extricate itself from the "Cyprus quagmire" had Papadopoulos been re-elected in the presidential elections.

Instead, Papadopoulos' ouster in the first round last Sunday has given the international community new hope for reunification negotiations, the paper said. In response to the report, Diaz noted that the UNFICYP has been in Cyprus for over four decades, helping to keep the peace and assisting the parties in their search for a comprehensive solution.

"It will continue to do so as long as Cypriot and the international community deem it necessary," the spokesman stressed in a written statement.

UNFICYP was set up in 1964 to prevent further fighting between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities on the eastern Mediterranean island.

After the hostilities of 1974, the mission's responsibilities were expanded. UNFICYP remains on the island to supervise ceasefire lines, maintain a buffer zone and undertake humanitarian activities.

However, the UN's growing impatience with the lack of progress on the Cyprus issue was evident in a speech given by UNFICYP chief of Mission Michael Moller earlier this month.

Moller made it clear the UN had no plans to launch a Cyprus initiative on its own but would rather support the efforts of both sides to re-start talks, if they were serious about it.

On Sunday, nearly two thirds of Greek Cypriot gave their votes to two pro-solution candidates, knocking out the incumbent President Papadopoulos who led them into rejecting a comprehensive UN plan for Cyprus.

The new president will be elected out of the two in the Feb. 24run-off.