Next round of Syria peace talks set for Sept. 14-15 in Astana

The next round of negotiations between representatives from the Syrian government and foreign-sponsored armed opposition besides delegates from Iran, Russia, and Turkey as mediators will take place between September 14 and 15 in Kazakhstan.

“According to the information from the guarantor states, during the upcoming meeting they plan to review several documents covering the work of de-escalation control forces, and continue work on agreeing the make-up of control forces in Idlib,” the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The statement said that Iran, Russia and Turkey, which serve as guarantor states in the peace process, plan to map out de-escalation zones in Syria’s militant-held northwestern province of Idlib, the central province of Homs and the Eastern Ghouta area outside of the capital Damascus, and exchange viewpoints on other matters such as prisoner exchange.

Kazakhstan’s capital city of Astana has hosted five rounds of peace talks for Syria since January. The negotiations are aimed at bringing an end to the foreign-backed militancy in the violence-battered Arab country, which began in March 2011.

The talks in Astana have been going on in tandem with another series of talks, held in Geneva and brokered by the UN.

UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura has sought to unify the opposition for a substantive round of negotiations in October, after hosting seven rounds of largely unsuccessful talks in Geneva.

The announcement comes as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s troops have been making sweeping gains against militants and consolidating their control over sprawling areas across the country.

Assad attends Eid al-Adha prayers in recently-freed town

On Friday, the Syrian president traveled to the recently-liberated town of Qarat, located about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Damascus, to participate in prayers for the Eid al-Adha (the Feast of Sacrifice), which marks the culmination of the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

Last month, Syrian army soldiers and fighters from the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement liberate Qarat during a joint weeklong offensive to oust Daesh Takfiri terrorists from the strategic and mountainous region of Qalamoun close to the border with Lebanon.

Syrian militants release captured pilot

Separately, foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants have released a Syrian government pilot, whose Soviet-built jet fighter aircraft had crashed in the country’s southernmost province of Suwayda, where Syrian government forces, backed by fighters from allied popular defense groups, continue to gain ground in their fight against foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the pilot, whose identity was not immediately available, was freed on Friday, along with over 30 other captured soldiers.

On August 15, a spokesman for Western-backed Jaish Osoud al Sharqiya militant group alleged that Takfiri terrorists had shot down a Syrian MiG military jet in a desert area near the border with Jordan.

“It was downed in Wadi Mahmoud in eastern Sweida countryside. The wreckage fell in the area and we think the pilot has dropped in a parachute. The search is going on to find him,” Saad al-Haj claimed.

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