Tense calm in divided Cyprus after UN says peacekeepers attacked

A tense calm held Monday in Cyprus after the United Nations accused Turkish Cypriot forces of assaulting peacekeepers attempting to block construction of a road in the buffer zone.

It was one of the most serious incidents for years on the divided Mediterranean island and drew widespread international condemnation.

The confrontation occurred on Friday in Pyla, an ethnically mixed village in the UN-patrolled buffer zone between the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus in the south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot statelet in the north.

The UN said four peacekeepers were injured and its vehicles were also damaged as they tried to block the "unauthorised construction work" near Pyla.

"All is calm in Pyla this morning," Aleem Siddique, spokesman for the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), told AFP.

"The mission remains on standby to block any resumption of construction works," he said, adding that the injured peacekeepers have been released from the hospital.

Cyprus government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis told reporters that meetings have been held internally and with permanent members of the UN Security Council since Thursday over the tensions.

"At this time, very delicate and specific handling is required," he said on Monday.

Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Colin Stewart, is to brief the UN Security Council later Monday about the Pyla incident, Siddique said.

Authorities in the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, who say the road project is aimed at easing the plight of its people, dismissed the UN mission's allegations as "baseless".

Veysal Guden, the Turkish Cypriot mayor of Pyla, said construction on the road would continue Monday in Turkish Cypriot controlled areas, but workers would not enter the UN-controlled zone.

"A chance will be given to diplomacy. Talks will continue," Guden told AFP.

The European Union condemned the incident, and in a joint statement Britain, France and the United States expressed "serious concern at the launch of unauthorised construction" of the road.

Local media reported that talks would take place between TRNC and the UN on Monday.

EU member Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish forces occupied the island's northern third in response to a military coup sponsored by the junta then in power in Greece.

Only Ankara recognises the statehood of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, proclaimed by Turkish Cypriot leaders in 1983.

Efforts to reunify the island have been at a standstill since the last round of UN-backed talks collapsed in 2017.