BEIRUT: As Syria’s war approaches its seventh year, two new rounds of talks on resolving the conflict are scheduled to take place in Astana and Geneva. The first meeting is in the Kazakh capital Astana, and is expected to build on talks held there last month sponsored by the Syrian government’s allies Russia and Iran, and rebel backer Turkey. The Kazakh foreign ministry said representatives from the government and armed rebels, as well as UN envoy Staffan de Mistura and US officials, would be invited to the summit. The discussions were due to begin Wednesday and last two days, but were postponed until Thursday due to unexplained “technical reasons”, Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry said Wednesday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday said the Astana meeting would be a chance to “monitor the commitment of different parties to refrain from using force and to promote, encourage, the political process.”A Syrian source close to the government said the discussions in Astana would be “purely military.”READ MORE OF THIS STORYSOURCE: News Now / The Manila Times Online(Visited 11 times, 11 visits today)Commentscomments

Source: GNN Liberia February 15, 2017 08:15 UTC