Two of 4 Syria Deescalation Zones Agreed on in Astana

A source told Sputnik that Parties to the ongoing Astana talks on Syria have agreed on two out of the four de-escalation zones.

ASTANA (Sputnik) — Parties to the ongoing Astana talks on Syria have reached an agreement on two out of the four de-escalation zones, but will adopt the whole package of documents related to the issue during the next round of negotiations, a source at the talks told Sputnik Wednesday.

"An agreement has been reached on two zones already, on Eastern Ghouta and north of Homs. There is still no agreement on Idlib. Probably, it will not be reached today because of lack of time," the source said.

"The documents are almost ready, but one of the parties wishes to adopt them altogether, only as a package of documents. There are seven, and they define the mandate [of the monitoring forces], the right to use guns, etc. That is why it has been decided that next week the joint working group will meet in Tehran to reach a final agreement on all these documents, including the one on detainees. They will be signed during the next round of Astana talks," the source added.

According to the source, Turkey at this meeting has a position different from that of Syria and Iran on the issue of detainees' release.

"Some differences emerged again on the agreement on detainees…. Documents had already been agreed on [before the current round], but now parties arrived with different positions," the source concluded.