What’s on the agenda for the new Syria peace talks in Astana?

A new round of international talks has been kicked off in Kazakh capital Astana in order to find a peaceful solution to end the Syrian crisis. The conference is being held while according to the various parties involved, Syria is now on the last days of its fight against the terrorists groups.

کد خبر: ۷۴۲۹۷۱

تاریخ: ۰۸ آبان ۱۳۹۶ - ۲۲:۴۰

Tabnak – A new round of international talks has been kicked off in Kazakh capital Astana in order to find a peaceful solution to end the Syrian crisis. The conference is being held while according to the various parties involved, Syria is now on the last days of its fight against the terrorists groups.

This is the seventh round of talks in what is referred to as the Astana peace process for Syria. Delegations from the Syrian government and armed opposition groups as well as the three guarantor states are present at the talks. So are representatives from the United Nations, Jordan, and the United States, according to reports.

The Iranian delegation, headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Jaberi Ansari, arrived in the Kazakh capital on Sunday. Expert-level talks began that same day, and the high-level talks will continue until Tuesday.

Jaberi Ansari, the Iranian chief negotiator, told IRIB before the start of the talks that the first item on the agenda of the negotiations was reviewing the activities of the three guarantor states within the framework of the de-escalation zones, particularly in Idlib, in northern Syria.

He said the latest developments and any potential breaches of the de-escalation agreement would be discussed.

Other issues to be addressed, he said, are two documents that have humanitarian significance, one on the exchange of captives and bodies, and the other on the clearance of mines in various areas in Syria. He said the Islamic Republic would "seriously” pursue the two issues because of their humanitarian importance and to contain the losses inflicted on the people of Syria over the course of the Syrian conflict.

Jaberi Ansari said some parties had also floated ideas on the political process to be pursued in Syria. He said viewpoints would be exchanged and consultations would be made on those ideas. If an agreement is reached, he said, it will be publicly announced.

Meanwhile, speaking to journalists after the first day of closed-door talks, Russia’s chief negotiator Alexander Lavrentyev expressed confidence that a political settlement to the six-year conflict was possible.

Assad "has confirmed his readiness for… the preparation of a new constitution and the holding of new parliamentary and presidential elections on this basis”, Lavrentyev said on Monday.

Lavrentyev called Assad’s acceptance earlier this month of a constitutional reform process "a very important announcement”. He also said Russia is ready to host a "congress of the peoples of Syria” involving both the government and opposition representatives.

It should be noted that the sixth round of talks in Astana ended in September with the adoption of a joint statement confirming the intention of the parties to continue work on establishing de-escalation zones in Syria and other decisions previously adopted in the course of the Astana process.

While the Astana process is separate from the UN’s Geneva talks on Syrian crisis, the attendance of the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura links the Kazakh platform to broader international efforts.