11th Round of Astana Talks on Syria Kicks off
ASTANA, (ST)- The 11th round of Astana talks on settlement in Syria was kicked off on Wednesday in the Kazakh capital with the participation of the delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic, led by Dr. Bashar Al-Jaafari.
In a statement to reporters, Director of Asia and Africa Department at the Kazakh Foreign Ministry Heydar Beck Tomatov said that all the participants in this round of talks had already arrived in Astana.
The guarantors of the Astana process (Iran, Russia and Turkey), the Syrian government and the armed opposition, as well as observers had had confirmed their participation.
Staffan de Mistura, the UN Chief Special Envoy for Syria, also arrived in Astana to take part as a UN observer, in addition to observers from the UN Higher Commission for Refugees and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), according to Tomatov.
Head of the Russian delegation to the talks Alexander Lavreintiev, who is the Russian President’s Special Envoy for Syria, told reporters that the participants will discuss several issues, including the situation in Idleb, the return of the displaced Syrians to their homeland, the fight against terrorism and the issue connected to the committee for discussing the current Syrian constitution.
The delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic started the first day of the talks with a meeting with the Kazakh Foreign Minister Khyrat AbdulRakhmanov . Consultations focused on ways to make the current Astana meeting a success. They discussed the agenda of the meeting and exchanged viewpoints on best ways to push the Astana process forward.
The delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic also held a meeting with head of the Russian delegation. The two sides exchanged viewpoints on Astana meeting agenda, coordination in the fight against terrorism and in the implementation of the agreement reached within Astana process, particularly those connected with the de-escalation zones in Idleb.
The two sides also talked about the latest terrorist attacks which targeted the city of Aleppo with chemical weapons and which was launched by the terrorist groups located in Idleb. They affirmed the need to presser these groups’ supporters as to stop this dangerous escalation.
Lavrentiev said that Russia expects that the counterterrorism process will succeed in eliminating the remaining terrorist groups in the eastern bank of the Euphrates, expressing confidence that the process will progress in a positive way.
Bilateral and trilateral consultations between the participating parties will continue to be held today and a plenary session is scheduled to be held tomorrow.
On Tuesday, the delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic to Astana, led by Dr. Bashar Al-Jaafari, held a meeting with head of the Iranian delegation, Assistant Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Hussein Jaberi Ansari. The two sides discussed coordination on the topics listed on the agenda of the 11th round of Astana talks.
The Kazakh capital has hosted nine meetings on the crisis in Syria. The tenth meeting was held in the Russian city of Sochi late last July based on Astana format. All the meetings affirmed commitment to preserving Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and to the fight against terrorism.
Hamda Mustafa