Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister speaks about Syrian talks in Astana

Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister has spoken about the Syrian talks held in Astana last week, Tengrinews reports.

As a result of the two-day closed-door negotiations, an overwhelming majority of the Syrian opposition groups that attended the meeting signed a joint declaration. Moreover, they expressed willingness to come again to Astana for the next meeting on the Syrian crisis.

“Kazakhstan believes that the Syrian crisis cannot be solved with the use of military. (…) We think that a peaceful solution must be found by Syrians themselves in the first place through negotiations. They should come to an agreement and to a balanced decision, which will ensure peaceful and long-term development of their country. The task of the regional and global players, we believe, is to create conditions for such peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis: without intervention, without pressure and without biased opinions. This is our position and this is what guided us during the preparations for the meeting of Syrian representatives in Astana,” Yerlan Idrissov said.

He mentioned that the talks in Astana were initiated by the Syrian side and Kazakhstan's task was to provide assistance and favorable conditions for their work.

“I would like to emphasize that Kazakhstan has no interests in Syria. We do not have any hidden agenda against the crisis. On the contrary, our position is open, neutral and impartial. The only interest of Kazakhstan in Syria is to return peace and to create long-term conditions for development," he continued.

Kazakhstan understands that one such meeting will not solve all the problems in Syria. “We, of course, are not so naive as to think that Astana is able to provide a final solution on the Syrian crisis or that one, two or three meetings in Astana can settle such a complicated crisis. We would like to emphasize that our contribution was part of the joint efforts to resolve this complex crisis,” Yerlan Idrissov said.

Reporting by Assel Satayeva, writing by Assel Satubaldina