Turkey Seeks Impeding Astana Process: Al-Jaafari

ASTANA, (ST)- Head of the delegation of  Syrian Arab Republic to Astana third meeting on Syria  Bashar al-Jaafari said on Wednesday that over the past two days, the delegation held constructive discussions with the Russian and Iranian friends aiming to enhance the cessation of hostilities, coordinate anti-terrorism efforts and separate the armed groups which signed the cessation of hostilities agreement from Daesh and Jabhat al-Nustra terrorist organizations and from other terrorist groups which didn’t signed the agreement.

 Turkey Wants to Impede Astana Process

In a press conference after the conclusion of the third round of Astana talks, al-Jaafari clarified that “the concluding session has just ended without the participation of the armed terrorist  groups delegation, because Turkey, the guarantor of these groups, wanted to impede Astana process. But, this goal was not achieved thanks to the sincere efforts of the Russian and Iranian guarantors and the commitment and serious stance of the Syrian Arab republic’s delegation.”

“Our delegation expressed readiness to discuss all issues that help stop bloodshed in Syria and put an end to the terrorism hitting our country. In fact, we as well as our Russian and Iranian friends exerted intensive efforts to make this round of talks a success,” al-Jaafari said.

On the repeated absence of the “armed opposition” from the meeting, al-Jaafari said the non-commitment to attending the meeting on the specified date is a kind of complete disrespect to the entire process, consequently the three guarantor countries are the parties which should be asked for holding those who ignored the time schedule of Astana III meeting accountable.

Demining Palmyra

Regarding the papers discussed during this round of talks, al-Jaafari said “there were some ideas put forward on some issues. We didn’t discuss any official documents except for one, which relates to the demining of the archeological city of Palmyra. In this regard we presented out vision which was accepted by the Russian side.”

Replying a question on whether the issue of forming a constitutional committee was proposed during the meeting, al-Jaafari said “no, this issue was not proposed or discussed during the meeting. We held an additional meeting with the Russian side which suggested some ideas about the constitution and we, on our part, also have ideas on this issue that need discussion.”

Hamda Mustafa