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ASTANA/GENEVA/MOSCOW: A fresh round of peace talks seeking to end Syria’s war began in the Kazakh capital Astana on Monday, as part of a Moscow-led push supported by Iran and opposition-backer Turkey.
The latest round of talks began days after Daesh was forced out of its de facto capital Raqqa in northern Syria.
Speaking to journalists after the first day of closed-door talks, Russia’s chief negotiator Alexander Lavrentyev expressed confidence that a political settlement to the six-year conflict was possible.
President Bashar Assad “has confirmed his readiness for... the preparation of a new constitution and the holding of new parliamentary and presidential elections on this basis,” Lavrentyev said on Monday.
He also said Russia is ready to host a “congress of the peoples of Syria” involving both regime and opposition representatives.
The precise date and location of the congress would be determined in Astana, Lavrentyev said, suggesting it could be at Russia’s Hmeimim military base in Syria.
Syria’s UN envoy Staffan de Mistura urged parties to move toward “a more stable political settlement” during a mid-October visit to Moscow.
Lavrentyev said Moscow was prepared to act as “a mediator” between Turkish forces in the Idlib zone and Damascus.
Russia expects all “terrorists” in Syria to be destroyed by the end of the year and then plans to keep enough troops in the country to prevent any new conflict, the Interfax news agency cited a prominent Russian senator as saying on Monday.
“We will leave in Syria only those troops necessary to avert a possible repeat of this terrorism,” the agency quoted Viktor Bondarev, the head of the upper house of Parliament’s defense and security committee, as saying.
In another development, a convoy from the UN and Syrian Arab Red Crescent entered towns in the besieged Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta on Monday, bringing aid to 40,000 people for the first time since June 2016, the UN said.
A tightening siege by regime forces has pushed people to the verge of famine in the eastern suburbs, residents and aid workers said last week, bringing desperation to the only major opposition enclave near the Syrian capital.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Twitter they had entered the towns of Kafra Batna and Saqba.
The Syrian Arab Red Crescent said in a separate tweet that the inter-agency convoy had 49 trucks.