The talks on the Syrian settlement in Astana are not an alternative to the Geneva format and are being conducted to solve the problems that arose during the Geneva talks, head of the Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC) Nasr Hariri said Wednesday disagreeing with the call by the United States to end this format.
ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th December, 2018) The talks on the Syrian settlement in Astana are not an alternative to the Geneva format and are being conducted to solve the problems that arose during the Geneva talks, head of the Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC) Nasr Hariri said Wednesday disagreeing with the call by the United States to end this format.Earlier in December, US Special Representative for Syria Engagement James Jeffrey said that the United States believed the Syrian settlement talks in the Astana format could be discontinued if the participants failed to summon the Syrian constitutional committee by December 14, calling to "pull the plug on Astana."
"Astana talks are not an alternative to the Geneva format ... Negotiations in Astana are conducted to find a solution to the problems that arose during the Geneva talks," Hariri told Anadolu news agency.
The 11th round of the Astana peace talks, with participation of Russia, Iran, and Turkey, as well as representatives of the United Nations, Syrian government and opposition, took place in late November. Following the negotiations, Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev told Sputnik that formation of the committee was underway.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has repeatedly stressed that there is no viable alternative to the Astana format on the Syrian settlement and criticized attempts to set a deadline for Syria's constitutional committee to form, saying that it is much more important to have a "functional and mutually acceptable constitutional committee" than an "artificial deadline."
The next round of the Syrian settlement talks in the Astana format is set for late February 2019.
