De Mistura Commends Iran Role in Astana Talks

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura lauded Iran, Russia and Turkey for the establishment of a trilateral mechanism to support the ceasefire in Syria.

De Mistura made the remarks on Tuesday after the latest round of Syria peace talks ended in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. The three countries agreed to work out a trilateral accord with the goal of supervising the ceasefire in the war-ravaged Arab country to guarantee all parties' commitment to the truce and prevent possible violations of the ceasefire, Press TV reported. 

After thanking the government of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev for hosting the talks, de Mistura expressed his gratitude to the sponsors of the meeting, "Iran, the Russian Federation and Turkey, for their determination to build on their achievements of last month when they assumed the responsibility of guarantors of a ceasefire regime in Syria."

The three sides stressed that there was no military solution to the crisis in Syria, and it can be only resolved through a political process based on full implementation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254.

De Mistura stated that the UN is prepared to help the parties to develop the trilateral mechanism, and ensure that it moves toward bolstering the quality of the ceasefire.

"Let me commend Russia, Turkey and Iran for their decision to establish a trilateral mechanism to observe and ensure full compliance with the ceasefire," he noted. 

  Draft Version 

After the talks ended, Russia announced that it had given the militants a draft version of a new constitution compiled by Moscow to speed up talks toward ending the conflict.

"We have handed the Syrian armed opposition a draft constitution of Syria prepared by Russian specialists for them to study," said Russia's envoy to Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev. He stressed that this was done "exclusively to accelerate" the process of ending the war.

However, the militants announced that they would not enter talks over any constitution with Russia. "The Russians put the draft on the table and we didn't even pick it up," said a source from the militant delegation in Astana. "We told them we refuse to discuss this."

Syria has been fighting foreign-sponsored militancy over the past six years. De Mistura estimated in August last year that more than 400,000 people had been killed in the Syria crisis until then. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.