The next round of talks between Russia, Turkey and Iran on settling the Syrian civil conflict will take place in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Sept. 14-15 and focus on forces that the three countries plan to deploy there, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said on Friday. Kazakhstan hosts the talks that have in the past few months focused on establishing de-escalation zones in Syria.
“According to the information from the guarantor states, during the upcoming meeting, they plan to review several documents covering the work of de-escalation control forces and continue work on agreeing the makeup of control forces in Idlib,” the ministry said in a statement. Moscow, Ankara and Tehran plan to map out de-escalation zones in Idlib, Homs and Eastern Ghouta, and discuss other issues such as prisoner exchange, it said. At the most recent Astana meeting, in July, the three countries failed to finalize an agreement on creating four de-escalation zones in Syria after Ankara raised objections.
