International talks intended to strengthen a countrywide ceasefire in war-torn Syria have been postponed by a day, the host state Kazakhstan said on Wednesday, February 15.
The session is now expected to begin on Thursday, February 16, in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, at noon local time (0600 GMT), the Foreign Ministry said.
The talks are expected to include representatives of Syria’s ruling regime and opposition forces, which have been battling in a bloody civil war already in its sixth year.
Russian state media said delegations of the allied Syrian and Iranian governments were still meeting.
Russia, which is helping broker the Astana talks as a major ally of Syria’s ruling regime, announced meanwhile that it would host a meeting between its foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the UN special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, in Moscow.
That meeting was expected to help the sides to get ready for parallel Syria talks in Geneva in the coming weeks.
Iran, Russia and Turkey, which supports some opposition forces, have been trying to serve as military guarantors of the ceasefire in Syria since it went into effect late last year.
(Source: NAN)