Iran, Turkey Coordinate Plans for Syria Astana Talks
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Ranking diplomats from Iran and Turkey met in Ankara for preparations for the expert-level meetings prior to a new round of Syria peace negotiations, due to be held in Kazakhstan this month.
As a fresh round of Syria peace negotiations will be held in the Kazakh city of Astana in late August, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari and Undersecretary of Turkey’s Foreign Ministry Umit Yalcın met in Ankara on Thursday for preparatory talks.
Apart from the ways to hold a successful round of expert-level sessions before the Astana talks, the two officials discussed the latest regional and international developments in the meeting, particularly the situation in Syria and Palestine.
The sixth round of Astana peace talks is slated for the last week of August. The upcoming conference will be preceded by expert meetings, due to be held in Tehran.
Syria’s warring sides have so far attended five rounds of peace talks in Astana, brokered by Iran, Russia and Turkey, known as the guarantors of a ceasefire in the Arab country.
The fourth round of those talks in May produced a memorandum of understanding on de-escalation zones in Syria, sharply reducing fighting in the country.
Over the past six years, Syria has been fighting foreign-sponsored militancy. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimated in August 2016 that more than 400,000 people had been killed in the Syrian crisis until then. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.
