Kazakhstan to hold new Syria peace talks next week
Kazakhstan is set to hold a fresh round of Syrian peace talks in Astana next week, as part of efforts to put an end to a six-year conflict in the war-ravaged Arab country.
The Kazakh Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday that the two-day negotiations would begin on December 21 and would focus on the release of prisoners, the delivery of humanitarian aid and the functioning of de-escalation zones and other issues.
The announcement was made as Russia’s President Vladimir Putin earlier on Monday ordered Russian forces in Syria to begin withdrawing during a surprise visit to the war-torn country.
The Astana peace process has been underway since January with the mediation of Iran and Russia, the Syrian government’s allies, and Turkey, which supports the opposition.
The latest round of the talks was held late October, with the three states agreeing on a Russian initiative for holding a congress with the participation of Syria’s conflicting sides in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
The all-Syrian congress, known as the Syrian National Dialog Congress, would involve drawing up a framework for Syria’s future structure, adopting a new constitution and holding elections under UN supervision.
Iran, Russia and Turkey, which serve as guarantor states of a ceasefire in Syria, agreed on setting up four de-escalation zones in the country’s militant-held northwestern province of Idlib, the central province of Homs and the Eastern Ghouta area outside of the capital Damascus.
The talks in Astana have been going on in tandem with another series of talks held in Geneva and brokered by the UN.
Previous rounds of negotiations under the auspices of the UN over the past five years have failed to achieve tangible results, mainly due to the opposition’s insistence that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should cede power.
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