Iran, Russia & Turkey Hold Syria Talks in Astana
Local Editor
The foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey were locked in talks on Syria in Kazakhstan Friday, almost a month after the Syrian army's operation against terrorists' enclave just outside of Damascus started.
The dire humanitarian situation in Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of the Syrian capital, is likely to be on the agenda as Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran, Sergey Lavrov of Russia and Mevlut Cavusoglu of Turkey convened in the Kazakh capital Astana Friday.
Speaking at the outset of the talks Friday Lavrov said that "millions of Syrians are looking in the direction of Astana" as the three power brokers work towards an end to the conflict.
The meeting is expected to lay ground for a summit involving the presidents of the three countries in Istanbul on April 4.
Syria's brutal war has claimed the lives of more than 340,000 people since 2011.
In recent weeks focus has been on Eastern Ghouta. Nearly 1,260 civilians have been killed there, a fifth of them children, since the Syrian regime's bombardment of the militant enclave began on February 18.
In this regard, UN chief Antonio Guterres described the former militant stronghold facing stark shortages of food and other basic goods as "hell on Earth".
Meanwhile, the United Nations Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura is missing the Astana talks through illness, his office said Thursday, adding that deputy Ramzi Ramzi would take his place.
Kazakhstan has hosted multiple rounds of talks on Syria since January 2017 backed by the three power brokers, most of which involved delegations from the Syrian government and opposition.
A deal for four "de-escalation zones" thrashed out in Astana last year was credited with reducing hostilities but was branded a failure by the United States in the wake of the assault on Eastern Ghouta.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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