The tenth round of “Astana format” meetings kicked off Monday in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, amid disputes between Russia and the UN over the priorities required to solve issues related to the
war in Syria.
While Russia seeks to enhance its activities at the level of the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland and to link the issue of lifting sanctions imposed on Damascus with the reconstruction efforts, the UN was working on pushing forward the file of working on Syria’s “constitutional reform.”
The tenth Astana round was hosted for the first time outside the Kazakh capital.
The nine meetings of the Astana talks were all held in Kazakhstan, where the last meeting convened on May 14-15. Several Russian sources said that the decision to hold the tenth round of talks in Sochi is an attempt to move discussions of all Syrian-related files to the Russian resort.
While representatives of Russia, Iran and Turkey are expected to tackle the future of Idlib amid reports about the Syrian regime’s intention to launch an attack against the province, Saleh Muslim,
former co-chairman of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) said, “we might cooperate with the Syrian regime at the military level to liberate our lands from Turkey. The issue is not about asking for their help in Afrin in exchange for our support in Idlib. We will work side by side if current understandings are matured.”
The meeting's representatives in Sochi give crucial importance to this Astana round for being held following field developments that changed the balance of forces on the ground and amid large political changes
that emerged in the Russia-French rapprochement and the agreements reached between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump in Helsinki.
Meanwhile, a State Department source told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that the US doubts the "Astana trio" of Syrian ceasefire guarantors would be able to continue work to resolve the Syrian crisis.
"The Sochi meeting participants will discuss the situation around Idlib, where government forces’ military operation is expected to begin immediately after the end of the southern campaign. Turkey would like to prevent this operation, and it has already sent its counterproposals to Russia," said Kirill Semyonov, an expert with the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC).
