The sixteenth international meeting on Syria in the Astana format ended Thursday in Nur-Sultan. The main topics of the talks were the resumption of the work of the Constitutional Committee in Geneva and humanitarian assistance to Syria in the context of the pandemic coronavirus.
The previous meeting was held in Sochi in February 2021 because of restrictions in Nur-Sultan due to the epidemic situation, but this time the talks returned to the home ground. The organizers did their best to preserve the traditional Astana format of a warm welcome for guests and, at the same time, to protect the health of members of delegations and journalists.
Negotiations traditionally took place over two days: on the first day the delegations held bilateral and multilateral consultations at The Ritz-Carlton, and the next day they continued at the Rixos. Most of the consultations took place behind closed doors, except for the plenary session, during which a joint statement was adopted, and the concluding press conference.
Geneva meeting
As expected, the Geneva agenda was one of the main topics of the consultations. At the end of the meeting, the guarantor countries Russia, Iran and Turkey stressed the importance of the work of the Constitutional Committee and called for holding its sixth meeting in Geneva as soon as possible. The sides also called on UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen to intensify the work in this direction.
The negotiators still have some differences of opinion within the committee, but, as the head of the Russian delegation, Special Representative of the Russian President for the Syrian Settlement Alexander Lavrentyev, noted, "all the conditions and prerequisites for the organization of the session are in place".
Pedersen himself positively characterized the discussions of the meeting in Nur-Sultan and promised to work out the dates of the meeting. He also expressed the hope that the committee's activity would resume soon and its meetings would become regular.
However, there was no specific answer to the question about the dates of the session, which the journalists were most worried about. Though, in fact, all participants of the Astana negotiations said confidently in their statements and during the communication with the press, that the committee would be summoned in the nearest future. Lavrentyev, in his talk with TASS, did not rule out that the next meeting will take place in summer.
Priority work
The question of the exchange of prisoners between the Syrian sides has always been a priority in the work of the Astana format on Syria. On the second day of the negotiations, there was a meeting of the working group on forcibly detained people, during which the journalists were shown the video of the exchange of five captured Syrian soldiers for five members of illegal armed groups, held by Russia and Turkey with the assistance of Syria on July 2.
Another important topic was traditionally the fight against terrorist groups operating in the Idlib de-escalation zone. Lavrentyev noted that the fight against terrorism in Syria remains one of the main issues, although Moscow notes a gradual stabilization of the situation. In a joint statement, the guarantor countries agreed to continue cooperation on fighting terrorism and condemned the increase in terrorist activity in various parts of Syria.
According to the head of the Russian delegation, at the talks in Nur-Sultan, the search for compromise solutions was complicated because of the low level of trust between representatives of the Syrian opposition and the official authorities of the country. Nonetheless, there are prospects for a gradual improvement in trust.
Humanitarian aid
Effective humanitarian aid to the Arab republic was the key-note of the talks. In particular, Lavrentyev called on the international community to shift the focus from military stabilization of the situation in Syria to humanitarian issues. The Russian representative repeatedly stressed that this was not about humanitarian aid, but about the implementation of specific projects to rebuild the country and its infrastructure.
Although humanitarian issues have always been on the agenda of the Astana talks, this time they have become even more urgent in light of the UN Security Council's agenda for the extension of the mechanism for the delivery of cross-border aid to Syria. Russia favors winding down the mechanism, which "has long outlived its usefulness". Lavrentyev said the West has yet to provide convincing arguments in favor of extending the mechanism and called for creating a new mechanism to deliver humanitarian aid directly via Damascus.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Ayman Susan confirmed that the republic needed humanitarian aid deliveries without discrimination, explaining that the cross-border mechanism led to the strengthening of terrorists. Meanwhile, Syrian opposition head Ahmed Toma expressed hope that Russia would not use its veto right when voting to prolong the operation of the only border corridor, noting that its closure "would be a big tragedy for Syria". However, the fate of the mechanism will be known in the coming days after the UN Security Council vote.
Future plans
After the meeting, the negotiators decided to hold another round of consultations on Syria in the Astana format before the end of this year in Nur-Sultan with consideration of the epidemiological situation. The meeting also brought back hope that the trilateral Russia-Iran-Turkey summit in Tehran, which was postponed because of the pandemic, may take place in the near future.
As a result of consultations in the capital of Kazakhstan, the guarantor countries confirmed their agreement to hold this trilateral summit as soon as the epidemiological situation in the world allows.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS