"We believe that the Astana process fully justifies its mandate. First, the de-escalation zones created on the Astana platform in Syria have proved their effectiveness in stabilizing the situation . Three zones - Eastern Guta, the district north of Homs, as well as in south of Syria have fully resumed to peaceful life," said Aibek Smadiyarov, official representative of the Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan.
In his words, now the work is being conducted to stabilize the situation in Idlib, while the guarantor states are closely interacting in this direction.
“The second main focus is to strengthen confidence-building measures between the conflicting parties, and extension of the process of exchange with prisoners. In the results of the sixth session of the working group of Astana talks the parties considered various options of new agreements for exchange with prisoners and search of missing people," he added.
US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert had said that the latest round of talks in the "Astana format" on Syria has not shown any progress in a political settlement of the conflict.
According to her, Russia and Iran "keep on using this process (negotiations in the "Astana format "- KazTAG) to mask the refusal of the Assad regime to participate in the political process."
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