Tabnak – A new round of talks to resolve the Syrian crisis has started in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana. As the US and Russia has agreed on adopting a more cooperative approach in the war-torn country, the decision by the Syrian opposition groups not to attend the talks once again darkens the prospects for a successful outcome of the negotiations.
The International Meetings on Syrian Settlement, fourth round of its kind to be held in Astana, kicked off on Wednesday and will continue into Thursday.
The talks are moderated by Russia and Iran - as allies of the Syrian government - and Turkey, which sides with the opposition. The Iranian and Russian delegations have already started the discussions.
According to the Kazakh Foreign Ministry, the guarantors of the Syrian ceasefire will be represented at the high level. The Russian delegation is headed by the special presidential envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev, the Turkish delegation – by Foreign Ministry's Deputy Undersecretary Sedat Onal while the Iranian one – by Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Jaberi Ansari.
However, Aljazeera reported Wednesday afternoon that Syrian rebels have suspended their participation in the latest round of Russian-backed talks in Kazakhstan in protest against what they consider as ongoing air strikes in the war-torn country.
Syrian rebel and government delegations were discussing a Russian plan for "de-escalation zones" on Wednesday when the opposition walked out, citing the bombardment of rebel-held areas.
The opposition delegation, that is the military delegation, has announced they are 'suspending' their participation in these talks. However, they aren't fully withdrawing participation, they've walked out of the meetings but they haven't left - at least not yet, the news channel reported today.
Meanwhile, according to Reuters, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday moved to ease the tension from U.S. air strikes in April against Russian ally Syria, expressing a desire for a Syrian ceasefire and safe zones for the civil war's refugees.
The two leaders spoke by phone for the first time since US relations with Russian were strained by the US attack on a Syrian airfield. The two leaders set the foundation for what could be their first face-to-face meeting in July.
After the phone call it is reported that Washington is dispatching a top State Department official as the US representative at the new round of intra-Syrian talks in Astana.
Russia Today notes that while the US did send its observers to two previous rounds of the ceasefire talks, its senior representative at the meeting was US Ambassador to Kazakhstan George Krol.
This time, however, its representative will be Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Stuart Jones, who previously served as US ambassador to Iraq in 2014-16 and to Jordan in 2011-14.
There have been three rounds of negotiations in Astana since nlast January. The talks have been hailed as contributory to a United Nations-brokered process in Geneva.
The Astana discussions have seen participants trying to shore up the ceasefire by agreeing on the establishment of a jointly-run mechanism to monitor the deal, which would report to the UN.
