Kazakh FM meets Syrian government and armed opposition delegations in Astana

ASTANA. KAZINFORM Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Kairat Abdrakhmanov has met today with head of the Syrian government delegation, Permanent Representative of Syria to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari. The meeting was held within the regular round of the Astana International Meeting on the Syrian Settlement, the MFA press service informs.

On the same day, the Kazakh FM had a meeting with a delegation of the Syrian armed opposition headed by Ahmad Toma.

The main theme of the meetings was discussion of the agenda of the talks, the current situation in Syria, namely in Idlib province, the prospects of final regulation of the long-lasting conflict in the country as well as soonest establishment and launch of the work of the Constitutional Committee on Syria.

"We are grateful to President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev for the negotiating platform he offered which proved to be the only effective mechanism on the way to building peace in Syria," said Bashar al-Jaafari.

At the meeting with the Syrian opposition, Toma pointed out the role of the Astana Process and stated that the talks in Astana have been the only efficient tool of regulation of the Syrian crisis.

In turn, the Kazakh Minister drew the Syrian side's attention to the importance of intensifying humanitarian component, including creation of conditions for unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid, further strengthening of confidence building measures between the conflict sides, intensification of the process of prisoners swap and evacuation of foreigners from the conflict area.

The sides touched upon also the return of refugees to Syria. The Kazakh side confirmed its support to the UN efforts on political regulation at Geneva platform.