The Council remained convinced that a durable settlement of the Cyprus dispute would be beneficial for all Cypriots and the situation in the buffer zone would improve if both sides accepted the 1989 aide-mémoire used by the United Nations. It welcomed progress in demining activities; the efforts of the Committee on Missing Persons; the appointment of Lisa Buttenheim as the Secretary-General's new Special Representative; and agreed that the active participation of civil society groups and bi-communal contacts was essential to the political process.