ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The seventh round of Syrian talks that begins on Monday in the Kazakh capital of Astana will focus on endorsing regulations in de-escalation zones and enforcing humanitarian efforts within the war-torn country.
"The Astana process has just completed the process of setting up the de-escalation zones,” said Alexander Lavrentyev, Russian delegation and Presidential Envoy for the Syrian Settlement as reported by TASS news. “A lot is yet to be done to make sure that the process becomes irreversible, that the agreements that have been reached grow into something more significant for Syria’s future.”
Lavrentyev, along with Iranian delegation Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Ansari and Turkish delegation Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Sedat Onal represent the guarantor countries leading the talks.
UN Special Envoy for Syria Steffan de Mistura, UN Acting Assistant Secretary of State, David Satterfield and the Jordanian delegation will also be taking part as observers in the talks. Bashar Jaafari, Permanent Representative to the UN represents the Syrian government.
During this round of talks, the delegation is expected to discuss a way to combat international terrorism as well as adopt a joint statement on demining in Syria along with working on releasing prisoners and hostages, transferring bodies of those who lost their lives along with searching for missing persons.
Although bilateral and trilateral expert consultations are taking place on Monday, a plenary meeting is scheduled for Tuesday.
The sixth round of talks was held on September 14-15.
The previous round of talks ended with the creation of de-escalation zones in the Idlib province, in eastern Ghouta, in parts of the northern Homs province and parts of neighboring provinces including Aleppo, Hama and Latakia as well as the southern part of Syria.
The de-escalations zones will all be in force for six months from the date of the last round of talks and extended if necessary based on the guarantor’s consensus.
Russia, Turkey and Iran will deploy forces to control the de-escalation zones as well as set up joint coordination centers to monitor activities within them.
Once the Astana talks conclude, they will continue to intra-Syrian talks in Geneva on November 28.
UN Special Envoy Mistura has said there will be two key issues discussed in Geneva, which include drafting a new Syrian Constitution and preparations for the next election process under UN supervision.
The United Nations, United States and Jordan have at different times sent observers to the Astana talks, which have run concurrently with the UN-brokered, more politically-geared Geneva peace talks.
Syria has been embroiled in an almost seven-year-long civil war that has killed at least 400,000 people according to the United Nations. It has been complicated by the rise of ISIS, further destabilizing the country.
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