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14th round of Astana talks on Syria kick off in Kazakhstan

MOSCOW, Dec 10 (KUNA) -- The 14th round of the Astana talks on Syria kicked off Tuesday with bilateral consultations between the participating delegations.
This round, hosted by the city of Nur Sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan, include the delegations of the guarantor countries of the Astana talks, namely Russia, Turkey and Iran, alongside the UN Special Envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen and the Syrian government and opposition delegations, as well as observers from Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan.
The Russian delegation is headed by the Russian presidential envoy to Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, and Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin, while the Turkish delegation is headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Sadat Onal, while Iran is represented by Assistant Foreign Minister Ali Asghar Haji.
The Russian delegation held separate meetings with the Syrian government delegation, the Iranian and Turkish delegations, and the UN delegation, said the Russian news agency (TASS).
TASS quoted Lavrentiev as saying that his discussions with Pedersen discussed ways to advance the political process within the framework of the Constitutional Committee.
He pointed out that Russia and Turkey are working to expand the safe zone in northeastern Syria stipulated in the Russian-Turkish Memorandum of Understanding in Sochi, describing the situation in this region as "relatively safe".
He stressed the need for Turkey to take action to compel the armed groups not to carry out provocative actions from the region of Idlib, including bombing sites near the governorate of Aleppo.
Russia and Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding on October 22 stipulating the establishment of a security zone 30 km near the border area with Syria, the withdrawal of Kurdish militants from it and the conduct of joint patrols to monitor the situation there.
The head of the Syrian government delegation, Bashar Al-Jaafari, said that the talks he held with Lavrentiev, did not address the work of the constitutional committee that was launched in Geneva, stressing that his country is not determined to stop confronting terrorist activity in the Idlib governorate.
The talks are scheduled to resume tomorrow with a joint plenary session in which all-participating delegations, including the Syrian opposition delegation. (end) as.aa