Syria Peace Talks Slated for Sochi in July

The next meeting in the Astana format that will involve three Syrian ceasefire guarantor nations–Iran, Russia and Turkey–will be held in Sochi on July 30-31, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said on Friday. “It will be held on the last two days of July, that has essentially been agreed, and in the format [of Astana talks] that we used before, that is, the three guarantor countries, the observer states and the Syrian parties,” he said, RT reported. An important result of the Astana process is the setting up of the working group on exchanging detainees and bodies of those killed, TASS quoted Vershinin as saying. “This is hard work, but so far the only efforts which help establish trust between the parties to the conflict,” the diplomat said. Iran, Russia and Turkey have mediated nine rounds of crisis resolution talks between the Syrian government and opposition in the Kazakh capital Astana since January 2017. The Astana peace process has significantly helped reduce the violence in Syria through the formation of four de-escalation zones in the country, setting the stage for the warring sides to focus on negotiations on the political future of their homeland.