Both Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar and President Nikos Christodoulides “expressed willingness to make progress” towards achieving and implementing the confidence-building measures agreed upon at March’s enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem, United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin said on Saturday.

Having held two meetings each with both leaders during her week-long stay on the island, she described her meetings with them as “positive”.

In addition, she said, “we also discussed the broader developments on the island, including the question of poverty”.

“I believe that by building genuine trust, we can pave the way for a positive outcome from the informal broader meeting in July,” she said.

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She also reviewed her trilateral meeting with negotiators Gunes Onar and Menelaos Menelaou, saying that “being able to discuss these issues jointly represents a constructive way to start building trust”.

“I look forward to continuing these engagements to find common and workable solutions to the issues which affect the lives of all Cypriots,” she said.

She went on to say that she had been “reassured and encouraged” during her meeting with the bicommunal technical committee on youth, and said the committee’s establishment “represents a sign of hope and shows the great potential young people can bring to the broader efforts aimed and finding a sustainable solution to the Cyprus issue”.

Additionally, she highlighted the work of the bicommunal technical committee on cultural heritage, including the project announced at March’s enlarged meeting to restore cemeteries across the island.

This initiative, she said, “represents a significant humanitarian effort which will touch the soul and hearts of so many affected families throughout the island”.

Of her own role going forward, she said that “I am here to offer support, to promote dialogue, and to bring everyone closer together, as the leaders seek to fulfil their commitments as outlined in the outcomes of the Geneva meeting”.

“I reiterate my resolve to respectfully carry out this duty … to move forward towards next steps in a spirit of compromise,” she added, before going on to say that she plans to return to Cyprus before the next enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem, which is set to take place in July.

Holguin is set to travel to Ankara on Monday to meet Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, before travelling to Athens to meet Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis. She is also due to visit London and Brussels.

She had met Christodoulides on Friday, with government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis after that meeting stressing that the recent arrests made by the Republic of Cyprus of people accused of selling Greek Cypriot-owned property in the northhad not come about because of political interference.

“We will repeat this for the umpteenth time – the president himself has said it, that in every well-governed state, in every democracy, the executive branch cannot interfere in the judiciary,” he said.

He went on to state that a tripartite meeting with Holguin and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar “would be beneficial and very useful”, though Tatar has this week twice ruled out meeting Christodoulides in light of the circumstances surrounding property.

Tatar had said after his meeting with Holguin on Thursday that it is “not possible to talk about a healthy dialogue” between Cyprus’ two sides in light of the circumstances surrounding the matter of property.

He described the arrests as “a policy of political pressure and intimidation targeting our people through real estate on the part of the Greek Cypriot leadership” and said it has “nothing to do with the law”.

He then added that his reasons for rejecting the idea of a tripartite meeting were “very clear and principled”.

“So long as the Greek Cypriot leader continues to attack us, he will receive a similar response. I never give credence to threats and blackmail,” he said.

Two Hungarian nationals were handed prison sentences over the matter earlier this month, with the pair having admitted to promoting and advertising the sale of houses near Kyrenia on the internet.

Meanwhile, the case of a German national who reportedly spoke about selling property in the north to an off-duty police officer during a flight to Larnaca is ongoing, and arrest warrants have been issued for four Turkish nationals in connection with developments in the Famagusta district village of Lefkoniko.