The negotiators to the 14th round of Astana talks on Syria discussed the first two sessions of the Syrian Constitutional Committee and assured that the third session would be convened "sooner rather than later," Ali Asghar Khaji, the head of the Iranian delegation to the talks, told reporters on Tuesday
NUR-SULTAN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th December, 2019) The negotiators to the 14th round of Astana talks on Syria discussed the first two sessions of the Syrian Constitutional Committee and assured that the third session would be convened "sooner rather than later," Ali Asghar Khaji, the head of the Iranian delegation to the talks, told reporters on Tuesday.
The Astana-14 talks began earlier in the day in the Kazakh capital city of Nur-Sultan, previously known as Astana, to run through Wednesday. Participants include the delegations of the Syrian government and opposition, UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen, and representatives of Russia, Turkey and Iran � the guarantors of ceasefire in Syria.
"We have always considered the role of the United Nations as important in the developments in Syria. The role of the UN special envoy as a facilitator is very important. Today we had the meeting with Mr. Pedersen, we reviewed the results of the first and second round of meetings of the constitutional committee. We support the efforts that he has made and the continuation of the work of the constitutional committee. We assured that the third round of the constitutional committee will sooner rather than later be convened," Khaji said after his meeting with Pedersen.
The first Astana format talks were held in January 2017 and marked the first that the Syrian government and opposition got together at a negotiating table since the beginning of war in 2011. During Astana-4 in May 2017, a breakthrough agreement was reached to create four de-escalation zones in Syria. Astana-14 discussions will be behind the closed doors on Tuesday, while on Wednesday the parties will hold a plenary session and adopt a joint communique.
