Putin, Nazarbayev Stress Astana Talks Impetus for Peaceful Settlement of Crisis in Syria

MOSCOW- Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev have stressed the importance of Astana meeting as a major impetus for peaceful settlement of the crisis in Syria.

  In a telephone conversation on Saturday, Putin thanked Nazarbayev for the big input in organizing the international meeting on Syria in Astana on January 23-24, the Kremlin’s press service said, Itar Tass reported.

 The Kazakh President expressed readiness to continue providing inclusive support for this political process.

  The communiqué of Astana meeting has affirmed commitment to the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic and to Syria’s being a democratic, nonsectarian, multi-religious and multi-ethnic country.

 In the same context, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif  asserted in a phone conversation the need to benefit from the results of Astana meeting in pushing forward the process of peace settlement in Syria.

They agree that the intra-Syrian talks in Astana were an effective platform for the resolution of the crisis in Syria and pledge to keep up close coordination of efforts on solution.

“It was stressed that the meeting [in Astana] became an efficient platform for a direct dialogue between the government of Syria and representatives of armed [opposition] in order to strengthen ceasefire, restore peace and calm in the country. [The ministers] expressed readiness to continue using the Astana talks’ experience and opportunities to facilitate the active work on the resolution of the crisis in Syria in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolution 2254. The ministers agreed to maintain close coordination of efforts on political settlement in Syria,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday, following the two ministers’ phone conversation, according to Sputnik.

Meantime, Russian President’s Special Representative for the Middle East and Africa, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov discussed with Syria’s Ambassador in Moscow Riyad Haddad the results of Astana talks on the Syrian settlement.

The two sides exchanged views on the situation in Syria in light of the Astana talks results and on creating positive conditions for establishing inclusive intra-Syrian negotiation process in Geneva supervised by the United Nations, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

 Hamda Mustafa