MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On Saturday, 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 this initiative and expressed readiness to provide a platform for such talks.
"There are some interesting important initiatives that are being planned in January including what we heard about the Astana meeting, we feel like all of these initiatives are useful to us in order to be able to have a common approach," de Mistura told a briefing.
The UN official said he considered the Astana talks a stage and a contribution which would complement the work of the United Nations on Syrian reconciliation.
