BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th December, 2018) The European Union, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and France held consultations with Iran on the results of the latest round of Astana talks on Syria, EU diplomatic service said in a statement on Monday.
The meeting, which was not announced in advance, was held in Brussels under the chairmanship of the EEAS Secretary General Helga Schmid and was attended by the political directors of Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and France. The Iranian delegation was headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Jaberi Ansari.
"All sides reiterated their strong support for the ongoing political talks in Sweden facilitated by the UN Special Envoy. The discussions also touched upon follow-up to the Astana process on Syria. The participants agreed to meet again in this format in the near future," the statement says.
The Astana-format talks have been an important part of international efforts aimed at settling the conflict in Syria. The last meeting in Astana took place in late November. The three guarantor states of Syrian ceasefire Russia, Turkey and Iran; the UN special envoy; representatives of the Syrian government and the opposition participated in it. Russian Special Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev told Sputnik after talks that the work on forming the third component of the Syrian constitutional committee, which comprises representatives of civil society, was close to completion, but the composition of the committee had not been agreed yet.
The next round of Astana format talks on Syria will be held in the first half of February 2019.
