"Turkey trying to derail Astana talks but fails"

Head of the Syrian Arab Republic delegation to the Astana talks said the consultations were constructive and sincere efforts by parties, present at this round of negotiations in the Kazakhstan capital, have headed off efforts to derail it.

Bashar al-Jafari said in a press conference held at the conclusion of the Astana 3 meeting, that this round of talks and the closing session were held without the delegation of opposition groups being present, and the reason behind that is that their guarantor Turkey wants to undermine the Astana track, but it failed in doing so due to honest efforts of Russia and Iran and the seriousness of the Syrian delegation, SANA reported.

He noted that the Syrian delegation has voiced readiness to discuss all issues that can save Syrian lives and put an end to terrorism, and that extensive efforts were exerted with Russia and Iran to ensure the success of this round of meetings and reach satisfactory results.

On whether the absence of the “armed opposition” delegation means deviating from the cessation of hostilities agreement, Jafari said that this interpretation is correct, and beyond that their failure to commit to the date specified for the meeting show that their carelessness regarding the whole process.

On the nature of the papers discussed during this round, the Syrian representative said that no official papers were submitted practically, and only ideas were discussed, as the only paper that was discussed was one on demining the archeological city of Palmyra.

Regarding whether the issue of forming a constitutional committee was discussed during the Astana talks, Jafari said that this issue was not proposed or discussed during the meetings.

Prior to Jafari’s statements, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov announced in the press conference the conclusion of the third round of Astana talks, stressing that these negotiations are an important part of tripartite and multipartite talks, and that it’s an honor for Kazakhstan to host this meeting.

Abdrakhmanov stressed that the meetings in Astana are an integral part of the Geneva process which revived hope in resolving the crisis in Syria, adding that the international community is holding out hope that the Astana process will help resolve the crisis.

He pointed out that an agreement to fix the cessation of combat activities was reached in Astana along with forming a group to monitor breaches of this cessation, in addition to reaching agreement on criteria for exchanging detainees.

Abdrakhmanov said that there are still many complicated tasks ahead, but what was achieved so far indicates that the Astana process is very valuable and important.

EA