Remaining Members of Syrian Opposition Arrive For Talks in Astana

All members of the Turkish delegation and the Syrian armed opposition delegation have now arrived in Astana for Syria peace talks, spokesman of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry Anuar Zhainakov told Sputnik over the phone.

ASTANA (Sputnik) – A source close to the negotiations told Sputnik early on Thursday that head of the Syrian armed opposition delegation Mohammed Alloush was among the people who arrived in Astana early on Thursday.

"I can confirm that representatives of the armed [Syrian] opposition have arrived in Astana," Zhainakov said early on Thursday morning, adding that the rest of the Turkish delegation had arrived as well.

Delegations from Russia, Iran, Syrian government and invited UN officials have already arrived in Astana.

The second round of Astana talks was expected to take place on February 15-16, however on Tuesday Syria's state television said that the beginning of the negotiations had been postponed until Thursday, because the delegations of both the Syrian armed opposition and Turkey had not arrived in Astana yet.

The first round of Astana talks on Syrian crisis settlement brought together the representatives of the Syrian government and the armed opposition groups for the first time in the six years of the Syrian war. As a result of the talks, Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed to establish a trilateral mechanism to monitor the ceasefire that came into effect on December 30, 2016.