Russia's special presidential representative for the Syrian settlement Alexander Lavrentyev said the Middle East is on the edge of a large-scale armed standoff, which should be prevented.
"The importance of this forum is indeed rising now considering all those worrisome developments that are currently taking place in the world, considering escalating tensions in the Middle East. The relevance of deepened bilateral, trilateral talks of not only member states, but also all those participating in the forum, is huge," Alexander Lavrentyev said.
The 21st Astana International Meeting on Syria is taking place in Astana on January 24-25 with the participation of the guarantor countries of the Astana Format - Russia, Turkey and Iran - the Syrian government and opposition, the United Nations, as well as the observer countries - Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.
The agenda of the meeting includes the development of the regional situation in Syria.
"All three guarantor countries, including Turkey, Iran and Russia, play a notable role in settlement of the Syrian crisis. This is why we will need to coordinate our further positions of cooperation with all participating sides, first of all with the Syrian side, of course, both with the Syrian government and the Syrian opposition," Alexander Lavrentyev said.
