Kazakh FM: All participants expected to attend the plenary session of Astana meeting

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5 May، 2017

Astana, SANA-Head of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry’s Press Service, Anuar Zhainakov, announced that all participants in the 4th Astana meeting on Syria are expected to attend the plenary session of the meeting.

Zhainakov told journalists on Thursday that according to initial information, all the delegations might participate in the plenary session of the 4th Astana meeting which will be held at 4:00 at Astana local time, 01:00 pm at Damascus local time.

He didn’t confirm or denied the attendance of the representatives of the “armed opposition” in the plenary session, but he asserted the attendance of all the participants in the meeting.

Russian proposal on de-escalation zones in Syria should move problem of separating moderate opposition from terrorist organizations

Delegations of the guarantor states of the cessation of hostilities in Syria represented by Russia, Iran and Turkey, started on Thursday a trilateral meeting in Astana in the framework of the 4th Astana meeting on Syria.

Head of the Russian delegation to Astana 4 meeting, Alexander Lavrentiev said in a statement on Wednesday that the Russian paper on the creation of de-escalation zones in Syria supposes fighting terrorists in those areas by the armed opposition supported by the guarantor states.

” We decided to go this way to create such zones in which the fight against terrorist organizations will be directly taken up by the moderate opposition themselves with the support of the guarantor countries,” he said.

The Russian plan, according to Lavrentiev, is to single out four hotspots in which the most intense fighting between the Syrian army on one hand and Jabhat al-Nusra and the so-called “moderate opposition” on the other hand is taking place.

” We believe that the creation of de-escalation zones in Syria can really help to move along the long-standing problem of separating the moderate Syrian opposition from terrorist organizations, primarily the ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra , and will help significantly reduce the level of armed confrontation between the Syrian Army and the armed opposition,” Lavrentiev added.

The Russian diplomat said that details of the four proposed de-escalation zones are still being ironed out, but the documents are due to be ready for signing by Thursday.

R.J/H.Zain/ Ghossoun