Too soon to evaluate outcome of Astana talks: Syrian diplomat

'However, what attracts attention is that the Turkish and the armed groups delegations have not arrived yet,” Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) quoted Al-Jaafari as saying to reporters.

Al-Jaafari added that the Syrian delegation held bilateral meetings with the Russian and Iranian friendly delegations, during which “We jointly evaluated the course of preparations for the meeting of Astana.”

“During the meetings, we compared what we have of information and facts with those of the Russian and Iranian delegations in order to jointly prepare well to the meetings of tomorrow,” the senior Syrian official added.

“During the bilateral meetings, we affirmed the Syrian Arab Republic delegation’s keenness to have Astana meeting succeed in a way that helps prevent the Syrian bloodshed and restore security and stability to the territories of the homeland,” he went on to say as reported by SANA.

The fresh Astana talks on Syria was held on Wednesday, Feb 15.

The first round of talks between the Syrian government and the armed opposition groups were held in the Kazakh capital on Jan 23-24 in the presence of the Iranian, Russian and Turkish representatives.

Iran, Russia and Turkey are the initiators of the Dec 30 ceasefire in Syria. The three countries have also planned the Jan 2017 Astana talks.

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