Astana talks: a new impetus to peace settlement in Syria - Karin

ASTANA. KAZINFORM Peace talks scheduled for January 23 in Astana are important to find common ground for a compromise in Syrian conflict. Different countries, including the US, have praised the choice of Astana as the venue for these nedotiations, said Yerlan Karin, a prominent political analyst and Director of the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies, Kazinform correspondent reports.

"I am closely watching the responses of international organizations' and political capitals of the world. I see the frequency of comments and references considering the upcoming meeting. Officials of the United Nations are prepared to send their representatives. We have also received signals from Washington: there is an understanding" he said.

According to Mr Karin, meeting in Kazakh capital will not cause a negative reaction of non-participating countries. Parties that will gather in Astana will not make decisions for others and come to agreement at their expense but discuss issues concerning them.

"Secondly, we are not talking about large scale inter-Syrian negotiations. In this part, as an expert I can say that we are talking about a compromise. No one is saying that this process will immediately resolve Syrian crisis. But it does not reduce the importance of the upcoming meeting. Even if the sides agree on certain issues, in some parts of the country it will be a sufficient breakthrough," he added.

Mr Karin noted that this kind of peace talks is a rather complex and multi-layered process and that coordination of positions goes on several levels and in several formats simultaneously. Therefore it would be early to try to predict some kind of results.

"Most importantly - it is a process. Given the scale of the tragedy, the conflict and its chronology - how long it all has been going on, the number of victims it is leading to. And so far the situation is hopeless and keeps escalating, given that it all began as a civil war, and then escalated into a large regional conflict, involving interests of different forces, parties and extra-regional players. The process itself is the most important thing here. It is important that the parties are ready for it and are looking for the best format of compromise", concluded the expert.

Earlier, heads of Russia and Turkey agreed to propose Astana as a new platform for negotiations to the conflicting parties of Syria. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, this meeting can complement the Geneva process. In turn, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev backed this initiative. Astana peace talks are scheduled on January 23. As for the Geneva peace talks on Syria United Nations Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura intends to convene them on February 8.