Turkey Hindering Coordination on Next Astana Meeting: Source

MOSCOW, (ST)- A source close to Astana meeting on Syria has announced that nothing has so far guaranteed the holding of the Astana meeting on June 12- 13, because the framework of de-escalation zones in Syria have not been specified yet.

The source told reporters in Moscow on Tuesday that talks to reach an agreement on the limits of these zones continue among the guarantor states and they should be completed by June 12, but the problem is that Turkey is hindering the coordination efforts under different pretexts.

 The Kazakh Minister of Foreign Affairs Kairat Abdrakhmanov announced yesterday that the Russian partners informed the Kazakh foreign ministry about preliminary plans to hold the next Astana meeting on Syria on June 12-13.

The source went on to say that consultations are being made at all levels and that the issue of specifying the party which is going to observe each of the de-escalation zones is also under consultation but no final and clear decision has so far been made in this regard.

According to the source, the process of establishing the de-escalation zones is being hindered by interests clash, so its difficult to anticipate the accurate date for specifying these zones.

The Kazakh capital Astana has hosted four meetings on the crisis in Syria  during which parties stressed commitment to Syria’s sovereignty, independence and unity and called for fixing the cessation of hostilities . During the last meeting early in April, a Russian memorandum on the establishment of de-escalation zones in Syria was signed.

Hamda Mustafa