The Permanent Representative of Cyprus to the UN, Ambassador Maria Michail stressed the importance of peacekeeping operations (PKOs) as a key tool in addressing today's challenges to global peace and security, while addressing an open meeting of the Security Council. The deployment of the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) has been demonstrated over the years and remains true to this day, she said, noting however that the mission's success is currently being jeopardized "by the acceptance of faits accompli on the ground."