Fifth round of Syrian peace talks likely to begin next week

Astana [Kazakhstan], June 5 (ANI): The fifth round of Syrian peace talks in Kazakhstan's capital Astana is likely to begin next week. Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov on Monday informed that Russia is planning to hold an international meeting on settling the Syrian crisis in Astana on June 12-13. "Now the countries-guarantors - the Russian Federation, the Turkish Republic and the Islamic Republic of Iran - are holding active and intense consultations between each other to finally set the dates of the next round of the Astana process meeting on the Syrian settlement. Preliminarily, our Russian partners have informed us that they are going to offer their partners to gather in Astana on June 12-13," Tass news agency quoted Abdrakhmanov as saying. Implementation of the memorandum on de-escalation zones is expected to be discussed during the talks. "As I understand, it is essential now for the countries-guarantors to confirm the positive tendencies, which we see now on the territory of Syria," Abdrakhmanov said. Earlier, the fourth international high-level meeting on Syria as part of the so-called Astana process was hosted by Kazakhstan on May 3-4. Delegations of the Syrian government and the armed opposition, countries-guarantors of the ceasefire and also high-level representatives of the United Nations, Jordan and the United States had attended the talk. Russia, Iran and Turkey had signed a memorandum in Astana, earlier, on creating de-escalation zones in Syria, but agreed to continue offensive against militants of the Islamic State (IS). (ANI)