Mna – Iran, Russia and Turkey in a tripartite meeting in Astana on Sun. reached an agreement on the agenda of the two-day Astana talks with armed and political Syrian opposition groups.
Under the agreement reached on a Sunday meeting between Iranian, Russian and Turkish delegations that lasted about five hours, representatives from the Syrian armed opposition groups will attend the Astana talks on Monday and the political opposition will take part in the next meeting on Tuesday.
The topics of negotiations that took place after the second meeting between the Iranian delegation and the Turkish counterparts as well as the third meeting of the Iranian delegation with Russia in the past 24 hours, included the evaluation of the final document and the Syrian-Syrian talks agenda.
Syrian Permanent Representative to the UN Bashar Jaafari told the SANA news agency on Sunday that the agenda for talks includes several main points, such as strengthening the ceasefire, separating terrorist groups like ISIL and al-Nusra Front from the political opposition who agreed to abide by the ceasefire and attend the peace talks, and finally achieving a common ground on the fight against terrorism with the participants.
The two-day Astana talks that will convene in Astana today will gather seven delegations including Iran, Russia and Turkey as the three countries which have organized the meeting. Other delegations include representatives from the Syrian government, Syrian opposition, and UN special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura. The US ambassador to Kazakhstan will also attend as an observer.
The Astana talks on Syrian settlement will be held behind closed doors at Rixos President Astana Hotel at 07:00 GMT on January 23 and are expected to end at 07:00 GMT on January 24. The negotiations brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran aim at bringing an end to the six-year conflict in the Arab country. The Astana meeting will also prepare for Geneva talks resumption on February 8.
