WASHINGTON

The UN Security Council unanimously approved on Thursday the extension of a peacekeeping mission in Cyprus.

The 15-0 vote extends the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) for six months, and Council President Nicolas de Riviere said his office "has met with the representatives of the parties who have confirmed that they maintain their well-known positions."

Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN to achieve a comprehensive settlement.

Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.

In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece's annexation led to Turkey's military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the TRNC was founded in 1983.