Kremlin Aware of Challenges to Astana Talks on Syria

Russia had been aware of challenges to the Syrian talks in Astana since their inception, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday, adding the negotiating process was not made easier by emerging differences between the parties.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — A Russian delegation is scheduled to hold bilaterals in Kazakhstan’s capital with delegations of the Syrian government, Iran, Turkey and the United Nations. Syrian opposition factions said they would stay out of the third round of Astana talks.

"We obviously regard [the Astana talks] as an extremely important negotiating process and have been aware of its extreme complexity since the very beginning: the situation at these talks is often complicated by significant differences in approaches of various parties, but the work is still on," Peskov told reporters.

The first round of Astana talks on Syria brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran were held on January 23-24 and resulted in a Moscow-Tehran-Ankara agreement on the establishment of a trilateral mechanism to monitor the ceasefire in Syria.

The second round of the Astana talks took place on February 15-16, with the participants agreeing to set up a ceasefire monitoring group, encompassing Iran, Russia and Turkey, that would report to the United Nations.

The third round of intra-Syrian talks in Astana will take place on March 14-15, with the consultations to be held on the first day and the plenary session to take place on Wednesday.