Astana Talks on Syria May Be Postponed - UN Envoy for Syria's Adviser

The talks on Syrian settlement in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana, previously scheduled for January 23, could be postponed, a political adviser to the UN special envoy for Syria told Sputnik on Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Astana talks are expected to be followed by a new round of negotiations on Syrian peace in Geneva on February 8.

"It is hard to say as the negotiation process is going on… I think if it [meeting] is slightly delayed, it will not be delayed for a long time. But I still have a hope that it will be held," Vitaly Naumkin said.

On December 17, 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed in a phone call the possibility of a meeting between the Syrian conflicting parties in Astana. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev supported the initiative and expressed readiness to provide a platform for such talks in the Kazakh capital.

On January 13, secretary of the Popular Diplomacy Movement Mahmoud Afandi told RIA Novosti that armed groups in northern Syria put forward an internationally-observed 10-day ceasefire as a precondition for their participation in the peace talks in Kazakhstan.