Geneva Syria Talks May Take Place Early September

The Geneva talks on Syria may take place in early September, preceded by the Astana negotiations on the situation in the country, de Mistura said Thursday, according to Sputnik.

"You will have Astana (talks) probably in the end of August, you will have early September the Holy Eid (of al-Adha falling on September 1), then you will have possibly the Geneva talks if we feel the timing and the appropriate moment is there, then you will have the (UN) General Assembly (September 18-25)," de Mistura told a briefing.

Representatives of Iran, Russia and Turkey held an expert-level meeting in Tehran on August 8 to set the agenda of the 6th round of the Syrian peace talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana due to be held later this month.

The results of the expert-level meeting are planned to be submitted to the Astana talks due to be held at the level of deputy foreign ministers.

Syria’s warring sides have so far attended five rounds of peace talks in Astana, brokered by Iran, Russia and Turkey, known as the guarantors of a ceasefire in the Arab country.

The fourth round of those talks in May produced a memorandum of understanding on de-escalation zones in Syria, sharply reducing fighting in the country.

Over the past six years, Syria has been fighting foreign-sponsored militancy. The UN special envoy for Syria estimated in August 2016 that more than 400,000 people had been killed in the Syrian crisis until then. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.