Syrian opposition likely to attend talks in Kazakhstan

Moscwo, Jan 13 (IANS) Major Syrian opposition groups, including the largest one, the High Negotiations Committee, are likely to attend the upcoming talks on the Syrian settlement in Astana, Kazakhstan, Russian media reported on Friday.

"We are in touch with the political opposition. With all of them, including the HNC," Mahmoud Afandi, member of the Syrian opposition delegation and secretary of the Syrian Popular Diplomacy Movement, was quoted as saying by the RIA-Novosti News agency.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, a Syrian opposition delegation arrived in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss the Russia-Turkey brokered talks between warring sides in the Middle East country.

Mustafa Sheikh, the delegation leader, said that the opposition members could meet Syrian government representatives in Kazakhstan's capital of Astana.

"There will be military personnel at the meeting, let the military make an agreement. But I am not excluding a possibility of contact with the representatives of Damascus in Astana," Sheikh said.

Meanwhile, Afandi said that representatives of the Syrian political opposition would attend the Astana talks as advisors, staying "behind the curtain," while representatives of various "military organisations" will participate in the talks directly.

Afandi said that Damascus will be represented by an official from the Syrian Defence Ministry.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the delegation was hosted by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, who is also Russia's presidential representative on the Middle East and Africa.

On Wednesday and Tuesday, Bogdanov also discussed the issue over phone with other representatives of the Syrian opposition, and talked in person with ambassadors of several Middle East countries, the ministry said.

Afandi added that the results of the negotiations in Kazakhstan would be submitted to the United Nations Security Council ahead of a round of political negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, which is scheduled for February 8.

An agreement about the intra-Syria talks between the Syrian government and the opposition in Astana has been reached between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It was also supported by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The Kremlin earlier Friday did not comment on inviting the United States to the talks in Astana.

"I cannot say anything on this matter, of course," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying.

"We are all interested in the broadest possible representation of the parties involved in the prospects of the political settlement in Syria," he said.