Moscow, SANA – A source close to the Astana meetings on the crisis in Syria said that so far there’s no guarantee for holding the next Astana meeting on June 12-13 as was planned due to the fact that the outlines of de-escalation zones haven’t been specified yet.
In a statement to the media in Moscow on Tuesday, the source said that talks on the outlines of these zones are ongoing between guarantor states and they should be concluded by June 12th, but the problem is that Turkey is hindering coordination under various pretexts which shows that it isn’t ready for holding the meeting as scheduled.
The source said that consultations are underway on various levels, and the issue of specifying which side will monitor which de-escalation zone is still being debated and no clear decision was made yet.
The source went on to note that the establishing of de-escalation zones is hindered by conflicting interests, which is why it’s difficult to predict when these zones will be specified clearly.
Hazem Sabbagh