Iraq seeks to join Astana talks on Syrian

"As an ambassador of my country, I want to ask the Russian leadership to invite Iraq to attend the talks in Astana," Haidar said at the meeting with Chairman of the Russian Federation Council (upper house) International Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev, reported TASS.

"We believe that our experience and our assistance will be needed in the political process of settling the Syrian crisis," the diplomat noted.

The eighth international meeting on Syria will be held in Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana on December 21-22.

The previous round of high-level talks on Syria was held in Astana on October 30-31. The negotiations involved the delegations of Syrian ceasefire guarantors (Russia, Iran and Turkey), the Syrian government and the armed opposition, as well as representatives of the United Nations, the United States and Jordan.