Russia, Iran, Turkey Initiate Talks on Int'l Assistance on Palmyra Demining

Russia, Iran and Turkey initiated a discussion in Astana on international assistance on demining the Syrian city of Palmyra, the countries said in a joint statement as guarantors.

کد خبر: ۶۷۷۵۸۱

تاریخ: ۲۵ اسفند ۱۳۹۵ - ۱۵:۳۱

Sputnik – The third round of the talks on Syrian reconciliation in the Kazakh capital of Astana is currently underway. During the previous talks carried out in February, the involved parties agreed to create the Syrian ceasefire monitoring group consisting of Iran, Russia and Turkey.

"The three countries… initiated discussions on international assistance for demining of the UNESCO cultural heritage sites in Syria," the joint statement by Russia, Iran and Turkey read out by the Kazakh deputy foreign minister, says.

Recently, Russia decided to send a demining squad to liberated Palmyra. On March 2, the Syrian army backed by the Russian military aircraft operating in Syria regained control over Palmyra.
A T-62 tank is seen here in the environs of Ancient Palmyra in Homs Governorate, Syria
© Sputnik/ Michael Alaeddin
Syrian Troops Gain Full Control of Key Hill East of Palmyra
Russia, Iran and Turkey have confirmed commitment to the political settlement in Syria, and stress the importance of the Astana-3 talks on the situation in the country for the Geneva process, their joint statement reads.

"The three countries… underlined the importance of the essential role of the Astana meetings In terms of complementing and facilitating the Geneva process, welcomed the resumption of the Geneva talks and… based on the interlinkage between the Geneva and Astana processes they expressed their support for the continuation of the talks in Geneva on March 23, 2017" the joint statement by guarantor states, read out by Kazakhstan's Deputy Foreign Minister Akylbek Kamaldinov, says.

Russia, Turkey and Iran as the three ceasefire guarantor states have discussed ways at the Astana talks on Syria to strengthen it and reduce violations, the three states said in a joint statement.

"The delegations of the three countries… reaffirmed their commitment to the consolidation and strengthening of the ceasefire regime, exchanged information on reports of ceasefire violations and stressed the need to reduce violations through increasing efficiency of the trilateral monitoring mechanism."