Iran, Russia and Turkey to create monitoring group on Syria

Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed on Thursday at a peace talk held here in Astana to create a tripartite operational group to monitor Syria's ceasefire, a Russian foreign ministry official said.

The monitoring group will work on the monitoring of the cessation of hostilities, termination of any violations by any party and take confidence-building measures to continue the peace making process, said Director of the Middle East and North Africa Department of Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Vershinin, during Moscow-Astana-Damascus videoconference in Astana on Thursday.

"A concrete result of what happened in Astana today is the adoption of the provisions of the joint group, consisted of Russia, Iran, Turkey, and which will operate on a regular basis to maintain and strengthen the cessation of hostilities," Vershinin added.

He also said the group will work on a permanent basis and its activities will not be limited to the technical side.

"Confidence-building measures will be taken and other problems will be solved to contribute to Syrian peace process."

Deputy Chief of General Staff of Russian Armed Forces Sergey Afanasyev stated that a special mechanism for exchange of hostages was created at the meeting in Astana.

Measures to strengthen mutual trust was discussed at the meeting, he said, adding the absence of such trust significantly hinders the peace process.

"It is still very far to direct Syrian dialogue, volume of mutual distrust is high enough and there are a lot of mutual accusations," said Head of Russian delegation Alexander Lavrentyev at the press conference after the meeting.

"At the same time, we must move forward step by step, leaving no space for the spirit of confrontation," he added.

The next meeting on Syria will take place in Astana within 30 days. Working groups will gather to continue working on the peace process.

This two-day meeting was the second such event on Syrian issue held in Astana, Kazakh capital. enditem