Iranian, Russian delegations meet again in Astana

TEHRAN, Jan. 22 (MNA) – Delegations from Tehran and Moscow conducted a second round of talks in Astana to deal with the political crisis in Syria. The session convened on Sunday morning in Astana Marriott Hotel located in the capital of Kazakhstan. The two sides had previously met on Saturday afternoon to mull over the latest developments and agendas for the Astana talks scheduled for 23-24 January in Kazakh capital. These chain meetings are probably focusing on axes of the final document of Syrian-Syrian talks. Additionally, Iranian, Turkish and Russian delegations are slated to meet on Sunday afternoon in order to hold more comprehensive negotiations ahead of Astana talks. Iranian delegation is led by Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab-African Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari during the talks. Iran, Russia and Turkey formed the initiative of Syrian ceasefire which was established on December 20, 2016 and they are also organizers of Astana talks. According to the announced schedule, Syrian peace talks will kick off on Monday morning at Rixos President Astana Hotel with representatives of Syrian government and opposition group and a UN delegation in attendance. The idea of Astana peace talks was finalized in the statement of December 20 meeting of foreign ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey and the talks aim to break the deadlock in resumption of Syrian peace talks in Geneva which have faced a seven-month hiatus due to sabotage of armed groups who are backed by anti-Syria countries including Saudi Arabia. At the end of the trilateral meeting on December 20, 2016, a statement was adopted which covered several issues including fight against ISIL and Jabhat al-Nusra, global call for cooperation against terrorism, territorial integrity and unity of Syria, ruling out military solution to solve the current crisis, implementation of Security Council Resolution 2254, comprehensive aid to Syrians, the need for people’s freedom in exiting areas in conflict and the ones dominated by terrorism as well as support for the Syrian-Syrian talks in Kazakhstan.