9th Round Astana Talks on Syria, No Item on Arab Force Replacing U.S. Contingent

Head of the opposition military delegation to the Astana talks Colonel Fateh Hassoun said the ninth round of negotiations on Syria, kicking off in the capital of Kazakhstan Monday, is an essential step to solve the country’s crisis, denying that participants would discuss US President Donald Trump’s proposal to assemble an Arab force replacing the US contingent in the country.

“There is no item listed in the talks on replacing US troops in Syria. Such issue would not be discussed during the Astana talks, even indirectly, because countries that could possibly send their forces to Syria are not participating or sponsoring those talks,” Hassoun told the German news agency on Sunday.

Last month, the Trump administration renewed an effort to replace US troops in Syria with an Arab force.

During the weekend, Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry said all parties to the negotiations in Astana have confirmed their participation in the two-day meeting.

 

It added that the talks would be attended by delegations of the guarantor states - Russia, Turkey and Iran - along with delegations of the Syrian regime and armed opposition. A UN delegation led by Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura and a delegation from Jordan will take part in the meeting as observers.

Hassoun hoped that the ninth round of talks would witness progress on prisoners and missing persons.

“Although we don’t believe that Russians, Iranians or the Syrian regime would be responsive to this issue, the opposition would again insist on discussing the situation of prisoners and the missing,” Hassoun said.

He added that there are more than 200,000 prisoners inside prions run by the Assad regime.

Hassoun denied that the Syrian opposition was facilitating the task of foreign states, particularly Turkey, to control northern Syria.