President Al-Assad, Lavrentiev Stress Continuous Coordination to Reach Positive Results in Forthcoming Astana Talks

DAMASCUS, (ST)-President Bashar Al-Assad and the Russian President’s Special Envoy to Syria Alexander Lavrentiev have stressed the importance of continuous coordination on all issues to be discussed in the forthcoming Astana talks on Syria in order to reach positive results that achieve the aspirations of the Syrian people, on the top of which are the elimination of terrorism and the restoration of peace and stability to all the Syrian territories.

 During a meeting on Friday with Lavrentiev and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin, President Al-Assad stressed the need to overcome the obstacles hindering the implementation of what has been agreed on previously concerning Idleb area which concentrates on eliminating all the terrorist groups in Idleb that keep launching terrorist attacks against civilians in neighboring residential areas.

Lavrentiev, on his part, said that he is confident that Astana talks will succeed in realizing more achievements in terms of defeating terrorism, the political process, the constitutional committee, the fate of the missing and the return of refugees, which will all contribute to ending the war in Syria, helping the displaced Syrians return to their areas of residence and starting the reconstruction of what terrorism has destroyed.

President Al-Assad and the Russian guest officials also discussed initiatives relating to the exchange of detainees and the efforts exerted to know the fate of the missing. They agreed on the need to speed up work to achieve the hoped-for results in this file.

Hamda Mustafa