By Kamila Aliyeva

The next round of the Astana talks aimed at the settlement of the Syrian crisis is planned for late February.

This was stated by Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov on the sidelines of the government session held on February 6.

He noted that the parties are currently preparing for the next round of talks in Astana in accordance with agreements reached earlier.

It's about the twentieth days of February, however, the final dates are yet to be confirmed, according to the minister.

To date, eight rounds of negotiations on the Syrian conflict were held in Astana.

In December 2017, during the eighth international meeting on Syria, the guarantor countries agreed on establishing a working group on the release of detainees/abductees and handover of the bodies as well as the identification of missing persons, and adopted a joint statement on humanitarian demining in Syria, including UNESCO's cultural heritage sites.

On the basis of its results, Russia, Iran and Turkey coordinated terms of holding of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress on January 29-30 in Sochi.

Guarantors of a nationwide Syrian ceasefire regime - Russia, Turkey and Iran - had agreed on May 4 in the Kazakh capital, Astana, to establish "de-escalation zones" in war-torn Syria. De-escalation zones in Syria allowed to significantly reduce the scale of the conflict and contributed to the improvement of the humanitarian situation in Syria.

While the Astana process is separate from the UN’s Geneva talks on Syrian crisis, the attendance of the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura links the Kazakh platform to broader international efforts.

Syria has been locked in civil war since March 2011. All previous efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution were ruined, with the opposition demanding Assad leave power, the government insisting he stay on, and neither side able to force the issue by achieving a military victory.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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