The next international meeting on the Syrian settlement in the Astana format may be held in the Kazakh capital this fall, Alexander Lavrentyev, the Russian President's Special Representative for Syria, told reporters on Thursday.
"The approximate date is most likely the fall. At the moment, there is still a process of additional agreement on holding the summit, which has been postponed for a long time due to the activist restrictions. Now our Iranian partners have assured us that the situation with COVID-19 is quite normal in their country, so they are ready to host the forum," he said.
According to him, everything depends on the schedules of the presidents of Russia and Turkey. "There is a lot of work, the time is complicated," he added.
On negotiations with Turkish counterparts
The Russian delegation at a meeting in Nur-Sultan with Turkish counterparts tried to convince them of the need for a peaceful solution to the problems in Syria, Lavrentyev said.
He said the first day of the delegations' meeting, which was held Wednesday in the Kazakh capital, focused on Ankara's plans for a new military operation in Syria. "We [Russia], for our part, tried to convince them [Turkey] that it is still necessary to solve the problem by peaceful means, without resorting to violence, because this could lead to escalation," Lavrentyev said.
On the postponement of meetings
The issue of postponing the meetings of the Syrian Constitutional Committee from Geneva is not related to logistical difficulties, but to Switzerland's anti-Russian position, Lavrentyev said.
"We have indicated an interest in moving the Constitutional Committee venue from Geneva. Here in many respects the decision depends directly on the guarantor countries (Russia, Iran, Turkey). It is not a purely technical and logistical issue, but a political one, because Switzerland is ahead of the whole planet in anti-Russian sanctions and speeches," he said.
"Therefore, it is difficult for us to work in such conditions. The coordination of this issue is going on and will continue," the special envoy added.
Earlier on Wednesday, Lavrentyev said Russia no longer considers Geneva a suitable venue for the next session of the Syrian Constitutional Committee.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
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Based on materials from TASS