Alwaght- The sixth international conference on Syria opened in Kazakhstan’s capital city Astana on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the ceasefire guarantor nations - Russia, Iran and Turkey, held preliminary meetings in that city.
The first day of the forum was dedicated to bilateral consultations and a final plenary meeting is scheduled for September 15.
The Russian delegation to the talks is led by Russian president’s Syrian settlement envoy Alexander Lavrentyev. The Iranian delegation in led by Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Ansari, and the Turkish delegation is led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal.
The UN Secretary General’s special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry’s special advisor for political issues Nawaf Uasfi Tel, and US Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East Affairs, David Satterfield will be acting as observers at the consultations.
Bashar Ja’afari, the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations is heading the Syrian government delegation and the chief of staff of the Syrian Free Army, Ahmed Berri will represent the militants.
Task number one at the talks is to establish a de-escalation zone in Idlib, to reach agreement on control forces and boundaries of this zone. According to preliminary data, the negotiating parties have the political will and are ready to reach a final agreement. They are to square the terms for control force presence, outline its mandate, including as concerns the right to use weapons in response of ceasefire violations in the three previously agreed de-escalation zones, namely in Eastern Ghouta, Homs and southwestern Syria (the provinces of Daraa, al-Quneitra and al-Suwayda.
The first round of the Astana talks, organized by guarantor states took place on January 23-24 and brought together representatives from the Damascus government and opposition groups.
The conflict in Syria started in March 2011, with the government of President Bashar al Assad blaming some Western states and their regional allies of backing Takfiri terrorists wreaking havoc in the country.
