EU emphasizes significance of Syria peace talks in Astana
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High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (R) and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrive for an EU-sponsored conference on Syria in Brussels on April 5, 2017
The European Union has emphasized the importance of the diplomatic process on the Syria crisis, which has seen three rounds of peace talks between Damascus and opposition groups in Kazakhstan under the auspices of Iran, Russia and Turkey so far this year.
“The talks undertaken in Astana by Russia, Turkey, and now Iran [are] important…[and] increasingly urgent,” the EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in Brussels on Wednesday at and EU-sponsored conference dubbed “Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region” underway in Brussels.
The Astana talks gather the Syrian government, on the one side, and the country’s political and armed opposition, on the other, at the negotiating table. Iran and Russia mediate the process on behalf of Damascus, while Turkey sides with the militants.
The United Nations has hailed the process for its contribution to a separate series of UN-led peace negotiations, which have been underway in Geneva in parallel with the Astana talks.
The Astana talks got off the ground after the moderators successfully mediated an all-Syria ceasefire.
The Brussels event has been overshadowed by an explosion at a militant chemical depot munitions in the northeastern Syria Province of Idlib, which reportedly left over 70 people dead, including 20 children.
EA
