Astana process can help save lives of tens of thousands of Syrians – expert

ASTANA. KAZINFORM The negotiations on regulation of the Syrian crisis scheduled for January 23 in Astana may help save lives of tens and even hundreds of thousands of the country's citizens, Kazinform correspondent reports.

The meeting will be held with the participation of a unified delegation of Syria’s armed opposition and government officials.

“Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of civilians have already been killed in Syria. There are hundreds of thousands of refugees. Local ceasefire deals can help reduce the number of victims  and minimize the number of bloodshed situations. Of course, it is too early to speak about ceasefire in the entire Syrian territory, because there are thousands of field commanders along with tens and hundreds of groups. If we avoid escalation of the conflict in a small part of the territory, it means we can save tens and hundreds of thousands of people,” Director of the Analytical Center of the International Studies Institute of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations Andrey Kazantsev said in a video conference with KazISS experts.
In turn, Deputy Director of KazISS Sanat Kushkumbayev noted that not all opposition groups would join the Astana round of talks. “Those only who expressed a desire and political will to solve the problem by means of a dialogue…” said the expert.

“Russia and Iran support the current government of Syria and all the allies of official Damascus. As we know, both Turkey and the U.S. as well as the European Union, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have some or another influence on the groups  existing in the territory of Syria,” he added.

Earlier, heads of Russia and Turkey agreed to propose the conflicting parties of Syria to continue peaceful negotiations on a new platform – in the capital of Kazakhstan. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, this meeting can complement the Geneva process. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev backed this initiative.