Trump’s national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, was notified of the invitation to Astana via a Dec. 28 phone call from Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, the Washington Post reported it was told by a Trump transition team member on Friday.
The talks are scheduled to begin Jan. 23 in the Kazakh capital city and come after multiple negotiations between US and Russian officials had failed to resolve the Syrian Conflict which began in March 2011, despite nearly a year of talks in Geneva, which resulted in a Sept. 2016 agreement for a cessation of hostilities, which didn’t hold.
Moscow hadn’t invited the Obama-led US government to Astana.
"We're encouraging a meeting in Astana. We hope that could produce a step forward," outgoing US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters during his final news conference on Jan. 5.
Russia and Turkey brokered a ceasefire for Syria on Dec. 31, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other organizations have reported ongoing violence in the country.
The US government has repeatedly said that peace cannot be achieved in Syria under President Bashar al-Assad.
“The reason is not simply because of my opinion of him,” Obama said in Nov. 2015. “It is because it is unimaginable that you can stop the civil war here when the overwhelming majority of people in Syria consider him to be a brutal, murderous dictator.”
Assad has said earlier this week that his “position is linked to the constitution,” and that any changes to the constitution would have to be put a referendum for the Syrian people.
from Rudaw http://ift.tt/2jPYSl3
via Defense News
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