Sides reaffirm commitment to Syrian ceasefire regime

During the meeting attended by Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab-African Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari and Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat, Kazakhstan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Akylbek Kamaldinov read a statement on the achievements made to date in Astana Peace Talks.

“The three countries… initiated discussions on international assistance for demining of the UNESCO cultural heritage sites in Syria,” reads the statement.

“The three countries… underlined the importance of the essential role of the Astana meetings In terms of complementing and facilitating the Geneva process, welcomed the resumption of the Geneva talks and… based on the interlinkage between the Geneva and Astana processes they expressed their support for the continuation of the talks in Geneva on March 23, 2017” the joint statement by guarantor states, read out by Kazakhstan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Akylbek Kamaldinov, says.

“The joint Russian, Turkish and Iranian statement said the next international meeting on Syria in Astana is scheduled for May 3-4, while the expert consultations will be held in Tehran in 18-19 April,” the statement reads.

“The delegations of the three countries… reaffirmed their commitment to the consolidation and strengthening of the ceasefire regime, exchanged information on reports of ceasefire violations and stressed the need to reduce violations through increasing efficiency of the trilateral monitoring mechanism.”

On Tuesday, Iranian delegation also held talks with the Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations Bashar al-Ja’afari, as well as Russian and Turkish delegations confering on the latest developments in Syria, arrangements for implementation of the current ceasefire, and follow-up measures in regard to Astana process.

The second meeting, held on Wednesday, also addressed the adding up the contents of this round of talks, forming the agenda for the general meeting on Wednesday afternoon, schedule of upcoming Astana talks and establishment of expert meetings for talks and exchanging views, in three countries between the two Astana meetings.