KAZAN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th May, 2023) The next meeting in the Astana format to resolve the Syrian crisis may be held in June, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Friday.
"We are preparing a meeting in the Astana format. In the Astana format - indeed. This will already be the twentieth meeting," Bogdanov said in comments on media reports that delegations from Russia, Turkey, Iran and Syria will meet at the end of June.
He added that it was necessary to wait until the end of the elections in Turkey.
Earlier in the day, Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported, citing diplomatic sources, that a meeting of the delegations from Turkey, Russia, Syria and Iran for comprehensive talks is possible at the end of June.
The war in Syria has been going on since 2011, with President Bashar Assad's forces battling various armed insurgent groups. In 2017, Russia, Turkey, and Iran launched a mediation group on the Syrian settlement in Astana. In January 2018, the Russian city of Sochi hosted a congress of the Syrian National Dialogue, the first such attempt since the beginning of the conflict to bring together an inclusive pool of Syrian political forces. The main outcome of the congress was the decision to create a constitutional committee, which will operate out of Geneva and whose main task will be to prepare for constitutional reform in Syria.
