U.S. remains tolerant in Astana talks on Syria
By Narmina Mammadova
The United States does not plan to participate in consultations on Syria in Astana at the end of November, but will be happy with their results if they prove to be effective, special representative of the U.S. Secretary of State for Syria, James Jeffrey, said, RIA Novosti reported.
He explained that the United States does not take part in every initiative on Syria.
"We do not plan to participate. We remain open-minded in terms of the possible effectiveness of negotiations in Astana," said Jeffrey.
The diplomat added that the U.S. welcomed the Istanbul summit held at the end of last month, in which Russian president and his counterparts from France, Germany and Turkey participated.
If the meeting in Astana turns out to be as effective as the Istanbul summit and also yields results that will benefit the people of Syria and international security in the region, then the United States will be happy and will work with such results, James Jeffrey said.
The meeting on Syria in Astana will be held on November 28-29.
Russian Presidential Envoy for the Middle East and Africa and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and Syrian Ambassador to Russia Riyad Haddad have discussed the situation in Syria and preparations for a meeting on the Syrian settlement in Astana, TASS reported.
The parties exchanged views in detail on the situation in and around Syria, including in the context of the upcoming 11th international meeting on Syria.
To date, Kazakhstan’s capital Astana hosted nine rounds of negotiations on resolving the conflict in Syria.
In December 2017, during the eighth international meeting on Syria, the guarantor countries agreed on establishing a working group on the release of detainees/abductees and handover of the bodies as well as the identification of missing persons, and adopted a joint statement on humanitarian demining in Syria, including UNESCO's cultural heritage sites.
Russia, Iran and Turkey coordinated terms of holding of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress on January 29-30, 2018 in Sochi.
Guarantors of a nationwide Syrian ceasefire regime - Russia, Turkey and Iran - had agreed on May 4 in the Kazakh capital, Astana, to establish "de-escalation zones" in war-torn Syria. De-escalation zones in Syria allowed to significantly reduce the scale of the conflict and contributed to the improvement of the humanitarian situation in Syria.
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.
Syria has been locked in civil war since March 2011. All previous efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution were ruined, with the opposition demanding Assad leave power, the government insisting he stay on, and neither side able to force the issue by achieving a military victory.
According to the UN, the number of victims of military operations in the country can range from 300,000 to half a million people. The settlement of the conflict is discussed in Astana and Geneva, and the Congress of the Syrian National Dialogue, which took place on January 30 this year in Sochi, was the first attempt to gather a wide range of participants on one negotiating platform.
Many believe the Astana meetings to offer new opportunities, that should be used at any cost.
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