Inter-Syrian meeting to take place in Astana on Jan 23 - Russian Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW, January 12. /TASS/. Moscow expects the inter-Syrian meeting to take place in Astana on January 23," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday. "We expect that the meeting in Astana scheduled for January 23 will take place," the diplomat said. "So far, we proceed from the date of January 23. We don’t have any other data so far," she said. Moscow hopes that the consultations "will become a new milestone on the way towards peace and give an impetus to constructive work of all the sides for resuming the political process in Geneva," she said. In mid-December, Russian and Turkish Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed with President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev the possibility of holding a meeting in Astana between the warring parties to the Syrian armed conflict. Nazarbayev approved this idea, saying his country "supports from the outset the international efforts aimed at the peaceful settlement of the conflict in Syria." Read more