NUR-SULTAN, Apr 25 (AFP): Delegations from Iran, Russia and Turkey were in Kazakhstan's capital Nur-Sultan on Thursday seeking an end to the conflict in Syria while shoring up their interests in any future political settlement.
Kazakhstan's foreign ministry confirmed that teams from the three powers as well as negotiators from the Syrian regime and its armed opponents had arrived in the capital Thursday.
Talks will take place throughout the day in "two-way and three-way formats" ahead of an expected plenary session on Friday, the ministry said in a statement.
United Nations Syria envoy Geir Pedersen would arrive later in the day, the ministry added.
The situation on the ground in the northwestern region of Idlib, under the administrative control of Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), is expected to feature prominently in the talks.
Idlib has been protected from a massive regime offensive by a September deal inked by Damascus ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey.
But regime bombardment has increased since HTS took full control of the region from rival rebels in January.
Other items expected to be included in negotiations include prisoner swaps and the distribution of humanitarian aid.
Russia, a backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has taken a lead role in diplomatic efforts in Kazakhstan that has largely sidelined UN diplomacy.
Tehran, like Moscow, is an ally of Assad's regime, while Ankara has aligned itself with the rebels but has repeatedly threatened to attack Kurdish fighters on the Syrian side of its southern border that it views as "terrorists".
The committee is of particular interest to the UN which favours a Syrian-led resolution to the conflict but it may be hamstrung from the outset, the diplomat warned.
A Reuters report adds: The US-backed assault to drive Islamic State from its Syrian capital Raqqa in 2017 killed more than 1,600 civilians, 10 times the toll the coalition itself has acknowledged, Amnesty International and the monitoring group Airwars said on Thursday.
Amnesty and Airwars, a London-based group set up in 2014 to monitor the impact of the US-led campaign against Islamic State, spent 18 months researching civilian deaths including two months on the ground in Raqqa, they said.
“Our conclusive finding after all this is that the US-led coalition’s military offensive (US, UK and French forces) directly caused more than 1,600 civilian deaths in Raqqa,” they said.
They said the cases they had documented probably amounted to violations of international humanitarian law and called for coalition members to create a fund to compensate victims and their families.
The coalition said in response to the report that it takes “all reasonable measures to minimise civilian casualties” and that there are still open allegations it is investigating.
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