Kazakhstan’s Astana to host Syrian crisis talks in May's end

Kazakhstan's capital Astana will host talks on the Syrian crisis on May 25-27, Tengrinews reports citing RIA Novosti. The talks have been held for four years already with a sole aim of resolving the Syrian crisis that initially started as a pro-democracy revolt and turned into a multi-sided civil war after the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government responded with violent crackdowns. It has already killed over 200 thousand people, according to the United Nations.

The leader of the Movement of the Pluralistic Society Randa Kassis spoke about the upcoming meeting. “I met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Yerlan Idrissov and the head of the (Kazakhstan Foreign) Ministry's Department of Asia and Africa. We set the date of the meeting of the Syrian opposition in Astana, which is May 25-27," she is quoted as saying by Sputnik agency.

She also said that Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry would send out invitations to all the Syrian opposition groups without exception and civil society groups, too.

The participants of the meeting will discuss delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria and development of an action plan to settle the conflict. Currently, Randa Kassis is meeting with the opposition groups. “We will never be able to find a way out of the situation or achieve an agreement with the Islamic State or Jabhat al-Nusra. But there are several disbanded officers that have agreed to visit Astana," Kassis said.

Earlier, the Syrian opposition asked Astana to join the Syrian crisis talks on April 6-9 in Moscow when Cassis called Kazakhstan a neutral country that enjoys good relations with all the permanent members of the UN Security Council. "And there are positive signals coming from Kazakhstan," she said.

However, the Kazakh side did not join the Syrian talks in Moscow that time.

Source: tengrinews Photo: tengrinews (The leader of the Movement of the Pluralistic Society Randa Kassis spoke about the upcoming meeting).