Vestnik          28/05/2015

Victoria Panfilova, an observer of Nezavisimaya Gazeta. Exclusively for Vestnik KavkazaThe next round of three-day consultations on resolving the Syrian crisis finished on Wednesday in Astana. The meeting was attended only by representatives of the opposition.

The government delegation of Syria did not come to the Kazakh capital. Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerlan Idrissov said that a resolution of the inter-Syrian conflict is only possible through peaceful means and only by the Syrians themselves.The leader of the Movement of the Pluralistic Society of Syria, Randa Kassis, initiated the negotiations in Astana. According to her, Kazakhstan can become an independent international arbitrator between the official authorities and the opposition. “Kazakhstan is a neutral state. It has good relations with Syria and with members of the United Nations Security Council,” Kassis said following the results of the consultations in Moscow. “I think Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev could receive Syrian representatives in his country.” Astana has been selected as the next possible site for consultations, particularly due to its close ties with Turkey, influencing the National Coalition for the Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, which is based in Turkey. Until now, its leaders ignored the invitations to come to Moscow for consultations. Given the fact that this coalition is considered to be one of the key groups of the Syrian opposition, any contacts between representatives of the country’s leadership and opposition without its participation will be inferior.Kazakhstan has agreed to host the talks, stressing that a resolution of the inter-Syrian conflict is only possible through peaceful means and only by the Syrians themselves. And it acted as a moderator during the inter-Syrian negotiations. Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerlan Idrissov wrote on his Twitter page that Astana adheres to an open position in the inter-Syrian negotiations and does not set any hidden tasks.The meeting was attended by about 30 representatives of the moderate Syrian opposition – the Movement of the Pluralistic Society of Syria, the National Democratic Front, the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change, the Coalition of Forces for Peaceful Changes, the Wa’ad party, the representatives of Kurdish, Turkmen, Assyrian and other ethnic groups, as well as experts from academia and civic society. The Damascus government, which did not participate in the dialogue, according to the Syrian Ambassador to Russia, Riyad Haddad, “does not count on these meetings having any results.”However, as the participants reported, the talks were constructive. They discussed humanitarian problems and the organization of corridors with the help of international organizations such as the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to deliver aid, as well as a road map solution to the conflict. The overwhelming majority of representatives of various Syrian opposition groups signed a final document on the results of the talks, a representative of the Movement for Pluralistic Society, Bassam Bitar, said. He did not specify which opposition groups shied away from signing and what was the cause of it, but expressed confidence that the results of the next meeting will be more spectacular. However, he did not specify where it is planned to hold the next round of negotiations. It is possible that it will take place in Astana again. Randa Kassis said that all participants of the talks agreed to come back to Kazakhstan. “We decided that we should meet every 2-3 months, and I think that Astana-2 will take place precisely in this period of time,” she said.Official Damascus is skeptical about the format of the talks in Astana: “Much of the opposition refused to participate. So we believe the meeting in Astana to be the same as those previously held in Cairo and Istanbul. We as a state do not count on these meetings having any results,” Syria’s Ambassador to Russia, Riad Haddad, told reporters.The director of the Kazakhstan Group of Risk Assessment, Dosym Satpayev, told Vestnik Kavkaza that Kazakhstan has good experience as a mediator in the conflict resolution process. He drew attention to the fact that Astana warned that it would not be a direct participant in the negotiations. Considering the fact that the negotiations were held behind closed doors, it is difficult to draw any conclusions, especially since they were not attended by the representatives of the Damascus government, i.e. the side which must be included in negotiations. But even if the results are not visible, Kazakhstan did not lose anything – on the contrary, it was beneficial, unlike the Ukrainian negotiation processes, and this is a plus for the Kazakh Foreign Ministry and the country’s leadership in general.Earlier, Astana has often been a site of talks. It is necessary to point out the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, when all international mediators and Iran’s leadership came to Kazakhstan. It was a triumph for Kazakhstan’s diplomacy in terms of mediation missions. Astana has also held talks on the Indo-Pakistani issue and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Astana is still ready to provide a platform for talks on Ukraine.

Victoria Panfilova, an observer of Nezavisimaya Gazeta. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza
The next round of three-day consultations on resolving the Syrian crisis finished on Wednesday in Astana. The meeting was attended only by representatives of the opposition. The government delegation of Syria did not come to the Kazakh capital. Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerlan Idrissov said that a resolution of the inter-Syrian conflict is only possible through peaceful means and only by the Syrians themselves.
The leader of the Movement of the Pluralistic Society of Syria, Randa Kassis, initiated the negotiations in Astana. According to her, Kazakhstan can become an independent international arbitrator between the official authorities and the opposition. “Kazakhstan is a neutral state. It has good relations with Syria and with members of the United Nations Security Council,” Kassis said following the results of the consultations in Moscow. “I think Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev could receive Syrian representatives in his country.” Astana has been selected as the next possible site for consultations, particularly due to its close ties with Turkey, influencing the National Coalition for the Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, which is based in Turkey. Until now, its leaders ignored the invitations to come to Moscow for consultations. Given the fact that this coalition is considered to be one of the key groups of the Syrian opposition, any contacts between representatives of the country’s leadership and opposition without its participation will be inferior.
Kazakhstan has agreed to host the talks, stressing that a resolution of the inter-Syrian conflict is only possible through peaceful means and only by the Syrians themselves. And it acted as a moderator during the inter-Syrian negotiations. Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerlan Idrissov wrote on his Twitter page that Astana adheres to an open position in the inter-Syrian negotiations and does not set any hidden tasks.
The meeting was attended by about 30 representatives of the moderate Syrian opposition – the Movement of the Pluralistic Society of Syria, the National Democratic Front, the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change, the Coalition of Forces for Peaceful Changes, the Wa’ad party, the representatives of Kurdish, Turkmen, Assyrian and other ethnic groups, as well as experts from academia and civic society. The Damascus government, which did not participate in the dialogue, according to the Syrian Ambassador to Russia, Riyad Haddad, “does not count on these meetings having any results.”
However, as the participants reported, the talks were constructive. They discussed humanitarian problems and the organization of corridors with the help of international organizations such as the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to deliver aid, as well as a road map solution to the conflict. The overwhelming majority of representatives of various Syrian opposition groups signed a final document on the results of the talks, a representative of the Movement for Pluralistic Society, Bassam Bitar, said. He did not specify which opposition groups shied away from signing and what was the cause of it, but expressed confidence that the results of the next meeting will be more spectacular. However, he did not specify where it is planned to hold the next round of negotiations. It is possible that it will take place in Astana again. Randa Kassis said that all participants of the talks agreed to come back to Kazakhstan. “We decided that we should meet every 2-3 months, and I think that Astana-2 will take place precisely in this period of time,” she said.
Official Damascus is skeptical about the format of the talks in Astana: “Much of the opposition refused to participate. So we believe the meeting in Astana to be the same as those previously held in Cairo and Istanbul. We as a state do not count on these meetings having any results,” Syria’s Ambassador to Russia, Riad Haddad, told reporters.
The director of the Kazakhstan Group of Risk Assessment, Dosym Satpayev, told Vestnik Kavkaza that Kazakhstan has good experience as a mediator in the conflict resolution process. He drew attention to the fact that Astana warned that it would not be a direct participant in the negotiations. Considering the fact that the negotiations were held behind closed doors, it is difficult to draw any conclusions, especially since they were not attended by the representatives of the Damascus government, i.e. the side which must be included in negotiations. But even if the results are not visible, Kazakhstan did not lose anything – on the contrary, it was beneficial, unlike the Ukrainian negotiation processes, and this is a plus for the Kazakh Foreign Ministry and the country’s leadership in general.
Earlier, Astana has often been a site of talks. It is necessary to point out the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, when all international mediators and Iran’s leadership came to Kazakhstan. It was a triumph for Kazakhstan’s diplomacy in terms of mediation missions. Astana has also held talks on the Indo-Pakistani issue and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Astana is still ready to provide a platform for talks on Ukraine.

 

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