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Iran sends delegation to Syria talks in Astana

Saturday, 21 January 2017 8:34 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 21 January 2017 1:37 PM ]

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Jaber-Ansari

An Iranian delegation has arrived in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, for negotiations aimed at resolving the crisis in Syria.

Headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Jaberi-Ansari, the Iranian delegation arrived in the Kazakh capital on Saturday.

The two-day talks, organized by Iran, Russia, and Turkey, are to involve the representatives of the Syrian government and opposition discussing a potential solution to the conflict in Syria, now almost six years old. The negotiations will start on Monday.

The Iranian delegation will be consulting with its Russian and Turkish counterparts to facilitate the intra-Syrian negotiations.

Rounds of United Nations (UN)-mediated talks have been held before in an attempt to solve the Syria crisis, and the UN has appointed different special envoys for Syria — a total of three so far — but to no avail.

Coordination between Iran, Russia, and Turkey helped bring about an agreement on the evacuation of militants in the northwestern Syrian city of Aleppo late last year. A ceasefire was also negotiated for the city, and, as the agreement held, the way was paved for its extension to the entire country.

The Astana talks will be addressing such issues as the further stabilization of the all-Syria ceasefire, effective confrontation with terrorism, and intra-Syrian dialog toward the achievement of a political solution to the crisis.

Foreign-sponsored militancy began in Syria in 2011. Substantive financial, political, and ideological support was offered to the militants by the countries opposed to the Syrian government, most notably the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.

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