The Syrian peace summit in the Kazakh capital of Astana, that was brokered by Russia, Iran and Turkey, ended yesterday – one day early, after the Syrian opposition decided to boycott the conference because of what they claimed were ‘ongoing ceasefire-violations by the Assad regime’. The Syrian government delegation rejected these allegations and accused Turkey of bearing responsibility for the rebels’ behavior, because of what Damascus claimed was Ankara’s ongoing efforts to sabotage the Astana talks.
“Not in attendance were the delegation of armed terrorist groups and the reason is that Turkey, their guarantor state, wants the obstruction of the Astana dialogue and this did not take place thanks to the Russian and Iranian efforts and the seriousness of the Syrian Arab Republic’s delegation,” said Bashar Ja’afari, Syrian Government Negotiator.
After pressure was applied on the rebel groups by their international backers, including Turkey, the rebels’ delegation is expected to appear later tonight for consultations with the delegations of Moscow, Ankara and Tehran. The head of the Russian delegation announced that even though the summit did not manage to cover all the challenges in the war-torn-country, all sides agreed to conduct another meeting in Astana at the beginning of May.
“Following the results of the talks the agreement to conduct another meeting in Astana on May 3-4 was achieved – this is a reasonable time for all delegations – on trilateral level – Iran, Turkey and Russia,” said Alexander Lavrentyev, Russian Delegation Head.