Turkish, Russian, Iranian officials discuss Syria peace

By Aliia Raimbekova

NURSULTAN (AA) - Officials from Turkey, Russia, and Iran met Thursday in the Kazakh capital Nursultan to discuss technical issues around ongoing talks between the three nations to find a settlement to the Syrian crisis.

Thursday's discussions were expected to focus on issues including the establishment of a committee tasked with drafting a new Syrian constitution, efforts to reduce tensions around Idlib, return of refugees, and post-war reconstruction.

The agenda of the technical talks is the completion of the work on the establishment of the Constitutional Committee and the participation of new observer states to the meeting process.

Turkey’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sedat Onal, Russian presidential envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev, and Iran's Ali Asghar Haji will co-chair the meeting.

Jordanian officials, UN high commissioner for refugees and representatives of the International Red Cross also take part in the meeting as observers.

Turkey, Russia, and Iran serve as guarantor states in the Astana peace process.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected severity.