Kazakhstan Meeting on Syria to Include Only Syrians: Russian Envoy
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Russia's Ambassador to Iran Levan Jagarian said a meeting on Syria that is planned to be held in Kazakhstan will include only the Syrian parties, including representatives of the Damascus government and the opposition.
In an exclusive interview with Tasnim in Tehran, Mr. Jagarian said the Kazakh capital of Astana is going to host a new round of negotiations on Syria with the presence of Syrian parties, namely the government and the “moderate opposition”.
As regards Russia’s view on the future of Syria and President Bashar al-Assad’s government, the ambassador underlined that Moscow has not changed its “principled policy” that Syrians themselves should hold talks to “achieve a result, something like a plan” to be coordinated by the conflicting parties.
On the role of other parties in the peace talks, Jagarian said if the Syrian-Syrian talks yield a result, Russia, Iran and Turkey will guarantee that.
The ambassador said Russia will not directly attend the upcoming negotiations in Astana, but will contribute to the talks. “The negotiators will be Syrians,” he added.
Asked about the recent assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey in Ankara, Jagarian said the terrorists had plans to harm relations between Russia and Turkey, but, on the contrary, Moscow and Ankara will push for closer ties.
A team of “professional Russian experts” will travel to Turkey to study the incident in cooperation with Turks, the ambassador noted, expressing the confidence that investigations would shed light on details of the terrorist attack.
Perpetrators of the attack will be brought to justice, he added.
Russia’s ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, was shot in the back and killed on Monday night as he gave a speech at an Ankara art gallery by an off-duty police officer.
Turkish authorities said the shooter was a riot policeman, Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22. A video showed the attacker shouting "Don't forget Aleppo, don't forget Syria” as screams rang out.
It came after the Syrian Army recaptured the strategic city of Aleppo from terrorist groups last week after a four-year battle with the military support from its allies, including Russia and Iran.
Syria has been gripped by civil war since March 2011 with various terrorist groups, including Daesh (ISIL), controlling parts of it.
