High-ranking diplomats from Iran, Russia and Turkey on Thursday began the eighth round of Syria peace talks brokered by the three countries in the Kazakh capital of Astana.
Astana hosted another two-day meeting attended by representatives from Tehran, Moscow and Ankara, which are guarantor states that brokered a ceasefire in Syria in Dec. 2016, Tasnim News Agency reported.
The Iranian delegation was chaired by Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Jaberi Ansari, while the Turkish delegation was headed by the deputy undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry, Sedat Onal, and Alexander Lavrentiev, the Russian president’s special envoy for Syria, led Russia’s delegation.
Representatives of the Syrian government, armed opposition groups, as well as delegations from the UN, Jordan and the US also participated in the talks.
UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura also attended the meeting on Friday.
Diplomatic efforts to end fighting in Syria gained momentum in 2017 with the announcement of the start of the ceasefire in the Arab country in early January.
The fourth round of the talks in May produced a memorandum of understanding on deescalation zones in Syria, sharply reducing fighting in the country.
