No progress on Syrian constitutional committee at talks in Kazakhstan

AFP  |  Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan) 

Two-day talks on backed by Iran, and concluded in Friday without notable progress on forming a to drive a political settlement in the war-wrecked country.

However further talks in would be needed, it added.

The parties were committed to "the establishment and the convening of the at the earliest in Geneva, holding the next round of consultations in and to support the Special Envoy's effort," the statement said.

The constitutional committee is of particular interest to the UN which favours a Syrian-led resolution to the conflict.

In comments after the end of the first day of talks on Thursday, Russia's said that "several unclear issues" were slowing the formation of a constitutional committee but did not specify.

Iran, and also used the occasion of the negotiations in Kazakhstan's capital Nur-Sultan to reiterate criticism of the for recognising Israeli sovereignty over the

The three condemned the move as a "rude violation of sovereignty" that would "create a threat to peace and security in the Middle East," they said in a joint statement.

The joint statement also said and would be invited to the next talks in on in July.

and the have observed the talks in the past.

Russia, a backer of Syrian Bashar al-Assad, has taken the lead role in diplomatic efforts in that have largely sidelined UN diplomacy in

Tehran, like Moscow, is an ally of Assad, while 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 capital of Kazakhstan was called until last month, when it was renamed Nur-Sultan after the country's outgoing

It began hosting talks on in January 2017.

Syria's war has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since the conflict began with the repression of anti-government protests in 2011.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Fri, April 26 2019. 18:50 IST