NUR-SULTAN (TASS): The guarantor countries of the Astana process have managed over the past six months to significantly reduce the level of tension in Syria and prevent provocations in the de-escalation zone in Idlib. This was stated on Wednesday by the special envoy of the President of the Russian Federation for the Syrian settlement Alexander Lavrentyev at a press conference following the 17th international meeting on Syria in the Astana format.
“Since the last meeting in the Astana format in the middle of this year, a lot has been done over the past six months. First of all, we have managed by joint actions to significantly reduce the tension in Syria, the level of armed confrontation,” he said. Also, according to the special representative of the President of the Russian Federation, it was possible to achieve success “in preventing any provocative actions on the contact line in the Idlib de-escalation zone, the number of provocations has decreased by more than 10 times.”
Lavrentyev stressed that over this period of time, the guarantor countries of the Astana format “managed to prevent a negative development of the situation in southern Syria, prevent the possibility of an escalation of violence and direct the development of the situation in a peacekeeping direction.”
In addition, the special representative of the President of the Russian Federation noted that the positive effect of the measures taken in the south contributed to the spread of “good experience” in the north, that is, in the province of Deir ez-Zor. “We can state that by now only in the south about 12 thousand people have settled their status, and in Deir ez-Zor about 10 thousand. That is, of course, it is absolutely impossible not to notice this. “, – he specified. The activity of terrorist cells in the Syrian Arab Republic (SAR) has reached unacceptable proportions in recent months, Lavrentiev said.
“While assessing the overall positive development of the situation in the SAR in terms of its stabilization, we nevertheless noticed that terrorist activity has intensified recently. First of all, of course, from the sleeping cells of the so-called Islamic State (IS, prohibited in the Russian Federation) In recent months, this activity has taken on unacceptable proportions, “Lavrentyev said.
“Every day, in fact, against representatives of the security forces, the Ministry of Defense, the legal authorities, and most importantly, terrorist acts are carried out against the reconciled former militants, they are dying,” the special representative of the president added.
Lavrentyev stressed that at the meeting in the Astana format, the parties agreed to take “comprehensive measures in order to put an end to this and stop the atrocities of the radicals.”
According to him, about 500 people accused of anti-government activities in the SAR have been released from prisons to date. “According to our data, to date, about 500 people have been released from Syrian prisons, who were previously accused of anti-government activities,” said the special envoy of the president.
In addition, according to Lavrentyev, 66,000 cases were suspended in relation to persons who were put on the wanted list for anti-state activities. “As we can see, quite intensive efforts are being made by the [Syrian] government. We should, I think, all encourage Damascus to take further steps in this direction, and not pretend that nothing has happened,” the presidential envoy concluded.
Russia expects to change the position of the West in favor of helping the reconstruction of Syria in order to stabilize the situation in the country.
“We very much look forward to a certain adjustment of the position [of the West], but we see that so far in the main Western capitals they are declaring that not a single cent will be provided to Syria for reconstruction programs,” he said. and we are trying to draw the attention of Western countries and the international community to the need to intensify this work. We believe that this will be the key to further stabilization processes in Syria. “
There have been no cases of harassment of Syrian refugees who have returned to their homeland by the current government.
“From the side of refugees who returned to Syria to the Russian side, to the Syrian authorities directly, to the UN specialized structures, not a single complaint was received about any harassment from the current government,” he said. cases of persecution by the Syrian special services, about which they like to talk so much lately. “
As Lavrentyev noted, these data indicate that the Syrian government “is still taking measures in order to carry out certain reforms, including law enforcement.”
In Nur-Sultan, on December 21, Astana-format talks on a settlement in Syria started. The consultations, which will last two days, are attended by delegations of the guarantor countries – Iran, Russia and Turkey, as well as the Syrian government, the Syrian armed opposition and the UN.
An armed conflict has continued in Syria since 2011. Negotiations in Nur-Sultan have been going on since 2017, and in January 2018, the congress of the Syrian national dialogue was held in Sochi, which was the first attempt since the beginning of the conflict to gather a wide range of participants in one negotiating platform. The main result of the congress was the decision to create a constitutional committee, whi-ch operates in Geneva and whose main task is to prepare constitutional reform.
The responsibility for the situation developing in Geneva at the Syrian Con-stitutional Committee lies with both sides – the government and the opposition.
“We discussed in detail the issue of the Constitutional Committee with the Deputy Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General for Syria. We are all ready to continue to provide all possible assistance to the work of the office of the special envoy. We very much hope that we will be able to hold the seventh session of the Constitutional Committee, not just with the achievement of some concrete results, but also to lay the foundation for such meetings on a regular basis. It seems to us that both Damascus and the opposition have an understanding of this in general. I will not stop repeating that responsibility for the situation that develops on this track lies with both sides. – he noted.
The accusations against Damascus are absolutely unjustified, one cannot demand any concessions from the government, Lavrentiev added. According to him, the participants of the Astana format intend to continue to provide support to the negotiation process, as well as to support the UN special envoy. As Lavrentyev said earlier, the seventh session of the Syrian Constitutional Committee could be held in January 2022.
The sixth round of meetings of the small (editorial) group of the Syrian Constitutional Committee took place in October this year. As the UN Secretary General’s special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen admitted, “key differences and mutual mistrust still persist between the participants in the dialogue in Geneva, which did not allow them to move on to discussing constitutional reform projects.” The committee is called upon to develop recommendations on amendments to the basic law of the republic, after which general elections will be held in Syria under the auspices of the UN.
The seventeenth international meeting on Syria in the Astana format, which was attended by the delegations of Russia, Turkey and Iran, as well as the Syrian parties and invited observers, yielded positive results for the negotiation process to resolve the situation in the SAR.
“We proceed from the fact that this meeting, which took place in Nur-Sultan, really has good results. First of all, because all three guarantor countries are present directly“ on the ground”- Turkey, Russia and Iran – and have a real impact on the emerging the situation on the territory of Syria, including the political process, “he said, noting that on the sidelines of the summit, the Russian delegation” had a thorough and businesslike conversation “with all the delegations present – the Turkish, Iranian and Syrian sides on almost all aspects of the Syrian settlement …
“Moreover, we have focused on our work, what we need to do next in order to make this work more effective,” he added.
As the diplomat noted, a lot has been done since the last meeting in the Astana format: it was possible by joint actions to reduce tension in Syria, the level of armed confrontation and to achieve success in preventing any provocative actions on the contact line in the Idlib de-escalation zone.
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