ASTANA (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.
"The Syrian delegation arrived, well done to them, they should be given credit for this. The fact that the arrival of the Syrian opposition delegation is still up in the air is only regrettable," he told reporters.
"The Astana process is taking place, it is progressing, I would not speak of the threat of the talks being derailed," he told reporters.
"Unfortunately we have not received from them extra explanations. If they have issues they should come here and let us know is a normal, constructive, calm fashion their concerns so that they could be resolved," he told reporters.
He expressed hope that the Turkish side would express later in the day the reasons for the absence of the opposition at the talks as a guarantor.
Head of the Russian delegation to the Astana talks on Syria Alexander Lavrentyev told Sputnik on Tuesday that he thought that it was possible that the Syrian armed opposition would attend the event, expressing hope that "common sense will prevail."
"It is rather possible, we hope that common sense will prevail. We regret they made the decision not to come and we see it as emotions that need to be overcome. It does not benefit anyone, and primarily the opposition itself," Lavrentyev said when asked whether the opposition’s decision to skip the event was final.
The determination of exact regions of Syria where Daesh and Jabhat Fatah al Sham (formerly known as al-Nusra Front) is one of the most important issues of the ongoing talks in Astana, Lavrentyev said.
"This is a very important aspect – not separation, but determination of exact regions of location of terrorist groups – Daesh and Nusra. This is very important, we are directing the attention of other delegations to this. Our Jordanian and Iranian partners are supporting us in this issue," he told reporters.
The Russian delegation is discussing constitutional issues among other topics at the Astana talks on Syrian reconciliation.
Russian delegation to the Astana talks has discussed with the Syrian government delegation the issue of creating a commission for constitutional change, and will further address this topic again, Russia's special presidential envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev told Sputnik.
"It is good that the Syrian government delegation came as well. We had a rather constructive discussion with them. Political issues were addressed. The issue of creating a constitutional commission has and will be discussed," Lavrentyev said.
"We view Astana process as an effective supplement to the Geneva process, not as its substitute. That is why we hope that constitution proposals… and ideas on creating a constitutional commission can be effectively used at Geneva talks. We are working on it," he added.
