This will be judged on the outcome alone, nothing less

Opinion Antonio GuterresCyprus problempolitics This will be judged on the outcome alone, nothing less 757454343 1410991927652178 4761272189028510602 N Relevant News This will be judged on the outcome alone, nothing less 28 July 2026 Larnaca businessman arrested over investor fraud complaints 28 July 2026 Things to do on Tuesday, July 28 28 July 2026 Andreas Bimbishis 28 July 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber A visit from the UN Secretary-General is, on its own, a big deal. Especially when you consider that the last head of the organisation to set foot on this island was Ban Ki-moon, back in 2010. But it matters even more when you factor in that nothing of any real substance has happened on the Cyprus problem since 2017, since Guterres’s own push collapsed. In a file like Cyprus, a visit of this kind carries a triple weight: a) the visit itself, as an event; b) what the Secretary-General is bringing to the table and what result he’s chasing; and c) what the whole effort actually delivers once he’s packed up and gone. Point one, then, is easily dealt with: the visit itself is already newsworthy. What he’s actually bringing may well surface today, in his separate meetings with the two leaders: President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman. What the visit itself achieves, we’ll find out tomorrow, once he’s wrapped up his contacts and faced the cameras. Either way, the decision to come to the island and stay two full days tells you this wasn’t a courtesy call. He means business. So what exactly is he offering? Word is that one of Guterres’s goals is to put a new plan on the table, an expanded version of the framework he presented to both sides at Crans-Montana. But that raises an uncomfortable question. Will this framework be handed over in writing, or just spoken? Because back in 2017, in the expanded Swiss talks, what he put forward was verbal, and it’s been fuelling arguments over what it actually said ever since. That vagueness in how the framework was presented did his effort no favours whatsoever. If anything, it created side-effects that only widened the gap between the two sides. Whatever plan or proposal Guterres puts forward this time round needs to be unmistakably clear, in substance and in wording. At this stage of the Cyprus problem, after all these years, there’s no room left for another foggy proposal. And that’s exactly why the “solution plans” being craftily floated, mostly to test the waters, cannot afford to lean on ambiguity, double meanings, or wriggle room for misinterpretation. What they say and what they mean have to be the same thing, in plain terms. Any shadow of doubt, any hint of a grey area, and you can bank on it producing the opposite of what was intended. Which is why what comes after Guterres’s visit to Cyprus matters so much. What are the next steps? How does the UN intend to steer the Cyprus problem back onto the negotiating track? Because that was, and still is, the real objective: getting Cyprus back to the table. Guterres’s visit won’t be judged on the fact that he came to Cyprus and stuck around for two days. Nor on whether his framework has grown: six points, sixteen points, whatever the number turns out to be. It will be judged on one thing only: whether he managed to drag the Cyprus problem back to the negotiating table to cover “the last mile” that was supposedly left unfinished at Crans-Montana. Subscribe to our Newsletter Latest News Larnaca businessman arrested over investor fraud complaints Things to do on Tuesday, July 28 Major quake in southern Japan knocks out power, disrupts transport Trump to host Netanyahu, Zelenskiy as Ukraine, Iran wars reach critical stages France braces for fourth major heatwave as crews tackle Bordeaux blaze Letymbiotis says informal meeting could revive Cyprus negotiations UN Secretary General Guterres visits Cyprus Follow en.philenews on Google News and be the first to know all the news about Cyprus and the world.