New round of Syria peace talks begins in Astana

De-escalation zones and humanitarian issues will be atop agenda of the seventh round of negotiations on Syria which kicked off in Astana on Monday morning, Russian News Agency TASS reported.

Accordingly, bilateral and trilateral expert consultations will be held on Monday, while a plenary meeting is scheduled for October 31. The Russian delegation at the talks is led by Presidential Envoy for the Syrian Settlement Alexander Lavrentyev, Iranian by Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab-African Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari and the Turkish by Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Sedat Onal.

Kazakh Foreign Ministry Spokesman Anuar Zhainakov also told TASS that United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura is not participating in the seventh international Astana meeting on resolving the situation in Syria.

The seventh international meeting on Syria is being held in Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana on October 30-31.