The key to success in latest Syrian peace talks: low expectations

Delegates from Russia, Turkey and Iran were wrangling over the terms of the final communiqué which would need to be approved – though not formally signed – by the government and opposition delegations.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Tuesday that this had now been agreed between the three.

A Syrian army tank patrols an area in the district of Al-Waar in the flashpoint city of Homs.

An estimated 400,000 people have been killed and 11 million displaced since the Syrian civil war began in March 2011, according to the UN.

Delegates have begun arriving in Kazakhstan for peace talks on Syria brokered by Russian Federation and Turkey. It is being attended by United Nations organizations, aid agencies, government representatives from Syria’s neighboring countries and donors from civil societies and the private sector.

Meanwhile, opposition groups voiced concerns that the regime’s “terrorist” description was too broad and demanded a clearer and monitorable mechanism while implementing the cease-fire.

Syrian Ambassador Bashar al-Jaafari, the head of the government’s delegation, condemned the rebel leader as “insolent”, and encouraged President Bashar al-Assad to withdraw from the talks.

At the end of the two-day summit in Astana, Kazakhstan’s foreign minister, Kairat Abdrakhmanov, said the three countries will use their “influence” to strengthen the truce, without specifying how that would work.

The opposition delegation at Astana meanwhile has said it will not sign a communique at the Astana talks.

Anadolu says the agreement is part of an article of a planned joint declaration to be released later in the day. “We came here to reinforce the ceasefire as the first phase of this process”, he said.

Despite anonymous hints of such a possibility to the media from delegations, Lavrentiev admitted that direct talks between the sides remained off the table, but praised the sides, who had engaged in a war of words before talks started, for stepping back from the brink.

The 14-member rebel delegation objected to the inclusion of Iran, which they said could not be a credible monitor as its proxies on the ground had repeatedly violated the ceasefire.

Astana: Syria talks brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran and seeking to bolster a shaky ceasefire in place since last month opened yesterday in Kazakhstan, marking the first face-to-face meeting between the Damascus government and rebel factions fighting to overthrow it.