Syria’s Jaafari: We Did Not Come to Astana to Meet Armed Terrorists

The Head of the Syrian government delegation to the 3rd round of Astana talks on the Syrian crisis, Bashar al-Jaafari stressed on Tuesday that Damascus delegation has come to the Kazakh capital in a bid to meet with the guarantors of the talks, Russia and Iran.

Commenting on the absence of the armed opposition factions during the talks, Jaafari said: “primarily, as a delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic, we did not come to meet the armed factions but we came to meet with two guarantors who are Iran and Russia.”

Meanwhile, Jaafari said that Damascus is keen to ensure the success of Astana meeting and achieve positive outcomes in a way that serves our higher national interests whether the armed opposition delegation attended the meeting or not.

“We held talks with the Russian delegation on the agenda of the 3^rd round of Astana talks and we discussed the political situation in a comprehensive manner,” he said, according to SANA news agency.

On the other hand, Jaafari said that Turkey should be asked about non-attendance of the armed groups to the negotiation.

The Syrian government delegation held consultative meeting with the Russian delegation headed by Russian President’s Special Envoy Alexander Lavrentiev, Jaafari said.

Earlier in the day, the intra-Syrian peace talks officially kicked off in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.