The delegations of Türkiye, Russia and Iran, the guarantor countries of the Astana peace talks on Syria, are set to convene in the Kazakh capital of Astana next week, Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aybek Smadiyarov announced Monday.
The 19th round of talks on facilitating peace in Syria is slated to take place on Nov. 22-23, Smadiyarov reported at the ministry’s weekly press briefing.
The Syrian regime and the opposition are also due to attend the talks. The U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Geir Otto Pedersen will also be present in the meeting while the U.N., Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq will participate as "observers," Smadiyarov explained.
The sides will be tackling a myriad of issues over the course of two days. These will mainly cover the comprehensive encouragement of the political process regarding the general situation in Syria, including humanitarian and socio-economic matters. The release of hostages, confidence-building measures about searching for the missing persons, and facilitating the right conditions for Syrian refugees’ return to their homeland will also be discussed. In addition, the officials will also talk about issues pertaining to mobilizing the efforts of the international community in line with the U.N. Security Council Resolution 2642 on the reconstruction of Syria.
A workshop meeting regarding the forcefully detained representatives of the guarantor countries, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, and the International Committee of the Red Cross is also on the agenda.
The last Astana Peace Talks on Syria took place in the Kazakh capital on June 15-16 of this year when the parties had stressed their strong commitment to Syria’s political unity and territorial integrity and the leading role of the Astana process in the peaceful settlement of the Syrian issue.
The Astana peace process is the ensemble of initiatives and plans launched in 2017 under the guarantor of Türkiye, Russia, and Iran to resolve the Syrian civil war, which began in early 2011 when the Bashar Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protestors with unexpected ferocity. The war has displaced nearly 7 million people and caused the death of over 300,000 people overall.