Al-Jaafari: It’s too Early to Talk about Optimism or Pessimism Regarding Astana Meeting

ASTANA- It is too early to talk about optimism or pessimism with regard to the outcomes of the Astana meeting, but what attracts attention is that the Turkish delegation and the armed groups delegation have not arrived yet,” head of the Syrian Arab Republic delegation  Bashar Al-Jaafari stressed on Wednesday, according to SANA.

Al-Jaafari said that the delegation held bilateral meetings with the Russian and Iranian friendly delegations, during which “we jointly evaluated the course of preparations for the meeting of Astana.”

 Speaking to reporters accompanying the Syrian Arab Republic’s delegation to Astana, al-Jaafari clarified that “during the meetings, we compared what we have of information and facts with those of the Russian and Iranian delegations in order to jointly prepare well to the meetings of tomorrow.”

“During the bilateral meetings, we affirmed the Syrian Arab Republic delegation’s keenness to make Astana meeting a success as to help prevent the Syrian bloodshed and restore security and stability to the homeland,” al-Jaafari added.

Russian envoy says Astana negotiators take constructive approach

 On his part,  Alexander Lavrentyev, head of the Russian delegation and presidential special envoy for Syria, said on Wednesday that all the participants in Astana talks on Syria have taken a constructive approach, Itar Tass.

 “All the sides have shown a constructive approach and we hope that tomorrow the results of meticulous work will be presented to your attention,” Lavrentyev said adding the work “is being carried out not only in Astana but also in the format of almost daily inter-departmental consultations.

“The example of Astana-1 has turned out to be quite attractive. So more and more armed units of the opposition are willing to join this process and to sign agreements with Russia as a guarantor,” Lavrentyev said. “This is welcome. For this purpose, a Jordanian delegation, who represents some of the opposition activists – the so-called ‘southern front,’ attends the consultations.”

Difficulties at the Astana talks on Syria are surmountable and an agreement may be finalized at Thursday’s session, Lavrentyev added.

“Today, since early morning we have been having detailed consultations between different sides, including the Syrian opposition, on various aspects of the Syria settlement,” he said. “The work is going ahead rather well but there are certain difficulties on this way. They are surmountable and will try to have come to an agreement by tomorrow.”