Nothing new after new round of ‘Astana talks’

Mohamed Abdel Ghaffar

The regular round of the international high-level meeting on Syria wrapped up in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, today.

States guaranteeing the Astana agreement, namely Iran, Russia and Turkey, sent representatives to the meeting. Attending the meeting were also parties to the Syrian conflict, namely the Syria government and the Syrian opposition.

Senior observers from the United Nations, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq also attended the meeting for the first time.

The meeting is part of protracted and arduous negotiations between the main players on the Syrian scene. It focused on revising the results of the last round of talks between these players, which was held in April 2019.

An agreement was reached during this last round of talks for creating de-escalation zones in Idlib, especially near the Russian military base. Those attending the meeting also denounced a decision by the administration of US President Donald Trump to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem.

Fully expected

The final communiqué of the latest meeting did not include anything new. Countries sponsoring the meeting expressed satisfaction with the work of the Syrian constitutional committee, even as the committee had convened only once.

Iran, Russia and Turkey also expressed concern over the growing influence of Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra Front, in Idlib. They vowed to eradicate the group as well as other terrorist groups in Syria. The three states also expressed sorrow over civilian deaths in Idlib.

The three states also rejected in the final communiqué of the meeting of the creation new realities on the ground, including autonomous rule areas under the pretext of fighting terrorism.

They said they would confront plans for undermining the sovereignty of Syria over all its territories. They considered these plans a threat to the security of Syria’s neighboring countries.

The final communiqué of the meeting called on the international community to support the return of Syrian refugees to their country.

It welcomed prisoner swap operations between the Syrian government and the opposition.

Conflicting reactions

Each of the parties involved in the Syrian conflict reacted to the communiqué in a different manner. These parties even violated the truce reached previously in Idlib.

According to the official Syrian news agency, SANA, terrorist groups fired five rockets in the de-escalation zone in Idlib. The rockets killed one man and injured three other people. They caused material losses as well.

This comes a short time after a Kazakh Foreign Ministry official said the Syrian opposition had agreed to join in the ceasefire agreement in Idlib.

“There is nothing new in the latest round of negotiations,” said Khalil Khaled, a specialist in Syrian affairs. “The Sochi agreement was signed almost a year ago, but it has never been implemented by Turkey,” he told The Reference.

He said agreements are good only when they are implemented.