Participants in Astana talks on Syria to hold plenary meeting

ASTANA, May 4. /TASS/. Participants in the fourth international meeting on Syria taking place in Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana will hold a plenary meeting on Thursday. However, ahead of the plenary meeting, they will continue consultations. Talks between the guarantors of the Syrian ceasefire - Russia, Iran and Turkey - lasted late into the night on Wednesday. The parties are expected to agree on a memorandum on the so-called "de-escalation zones." Apart from the guarantor countries, the United Nations delegation headed by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, as well as the delegations of Jordan and the United States, the observer countries, are participating in the Astana meeting. The Syrian government delegation is led by Bashar Jaafari, the country’s Permanent Representative to the United States. On May 3, the Syrian armed opposition delegation suspended its participation in the meeting citing "the bombardment" of the opposition-held areas. However, the delegation remains in Astana, its members held a meeting with de Mistura at their hotel on Wednesday night. High Negotiations Committee (HNC) adviser Yahya al-Aridi told TASS earlier that there was no decision on further participation in the talks. Meanwhile, Moscow said that accusations of Damascus carrying out bomb raids on the Homs and Daraa areas were groundless. According to Alexander Lavrentyev, Russian Special Presidential Representative for settling the Syrian crisis and head of the Russian delegation to the Astana talks, the opposition seeks to exert pressure on the guarantor countries to bargain for political favors. "It seems, the opposition is not willing to assume obligations in accordance with the agreements which are about to be reached in Astana, they have been taking advantage of every pretext to stop participating," Lavrentyev said. De-escalation zones The recent talks between the Russian and Turkish presidents facilitated the discussion of setting up de-escalation zones during the Astana talks. Four areas are planned to be de-escalated, where heavy military activities have been taking place between the Syrian government forces, the opposition units and members of the Jabhat al-Nusra terror group (outlawed in Russia). Moscow believes that this step will help achieve a breakthrough in the process of separating the Syrian opposition’s armed units from terrorists. According to Alexander Lavrentyev, a memorandum on that is expected to be signed during Thursday’s plenary meeting. Other documents A number of other documents that were discussed at the previous Astana meetings still need to be agreed on. They particularly include a document concerning the exchanged of captives and the additional protocol on the ceasefire. Besides, a document on setting up an international commission on the demining of the Syrian cultural heritage sites may also be adopted. Read more