Talks on Syria to be held in Kazakhstan in mid-December

Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tleuberdi said on Thursday that the next meeting of the Astana negotiations on Syria will be held in Nur-Sultan in mid-December.

"The guarantor countries have asked us to organize the next round of the Astana process. Its dates are still under consideration, it will be around mid-December," he said.

The top diplomat pointed out that the meeting would bring together the guarantors of the Astana process (Russia, Iran and Turkey), parties to the Syrian conflict and observers.

"We are currently trying to determine (the level of the talks), deputy foreign ministers usually represent the guarantor countries," Tleuberdi added.

The 16th international high-level meeting on Syria, which took place in Kazakhstan's capital of Nur-Sultan on July 7-8, involved the delegations of the guarantor countries, the Syrian government and the armed opposition. The parties discussed the situation in Syria, the international community's assistance to the country, the prospects for the resumption of the Syrian Constitutional Committee's activities and confidence-building measures, including prisoner swaps, the liberation of hostages and the search for missing persons.