President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev on Monday expressed readiness to host Syrian peace talks in Astana.
“The Astana process will be in addition to the United Nations process. Turkey, Russia and İran will be guarantor countries, but the Syrian regime and opposition will negotiate,” Ibrahim Kalın said at a press conference in Ankara as quoted by website Turkish Minute.
The spokesman added that Turkey is advocating that the ceasefire in Aleppo to be implemented throughout Syria.
The opposition and Damascus, along with the mediators, have been engaged in UN-brokered settlement talks. The last round of intra-Syrian talks took place in Geneva in April. The Syrian High Negotiations Committee opposition group walked out of the negotiations, citing the continuous fighting in Syria and the lack of progress on humanitarian issues.
