Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan hosts the meeting as a sequel to Moscow trilateral meeting which had been a success in restoring peace to Syria as a whole and brought to Aleppo a ceasefire earlier in December. The meeting will continue to Tuesday, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported.
To the major session will be attending also UNSG’s special envoy to Syria Mr. Staffan de Mistura and Syrian government and opposition delegations. Russian Sputnik news website report said US ambassador to Astana will also attend in Rixos Hotel, the site of the talks to be started on Monday. The major event will be under closed doors, Kazakh Foreign Ministry said.
Iran’s delegation to talks headed by Mr. Hossein Jaberi Ansari and Russian delegation met in their second bilateral session on Sunday to coordinate Monday meeting.
Astana meeting is slated to find a way out of the stalemate in the peace talks which produced nothing in Geneva 7 months ago as opposition groups, supported by Saudi Arabia, and hostile to Assad government, undermined the meeting.
Moscow trilateral meeting wrapped up with a statement which urged fighting ISIL and Fath al-Sham Front (former Al-Nusra Front), respecting Syrian territorial integrity, implementation of UN Resolution 2254, safe evacuation of civilians from areas of active war. The statement also provisioned Astana session where Syrian government and opposition would sit in a dialogue on national unity government.
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