Participants in the Syrian peace talks that will be held on March 14-15 in Astana plan to finish preparing a single map of the presence of the Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State terrorist organizations (outlawed in Russia) in Syria, a Russian general said on Friday.
“Preparations are under way for a new meeting that will be held in the capital of Kazakhstan on March 14-15,” Head of the Russian General Staff’s Main Operations Department Colonel-General Sergei Rudskoi said.
“During the negotiations, there are plans to finish preparing a single map of the presence of formations of the terrorist groupings Jabhat al-Nusra and the ISIL [the former name of the Islamic State] in Syria, approve a draft Regulation on a district that has joined a ceasefire, set up a working group for the exchange of forcibly held persons, discuss proposals on forming an international coalition for demining UNESCO cultural heritage monuments and establishing a constitutional commission,” the Russian general said.
At their Astana meeting on February 6, the participants in the Syria peace talks delimited the moderate opposition and the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra formations on the maps.
The head of the Russian delegation noted that the opinions of the sides did not coincide “on all issues so far” but the participants in the negotiations “principally secured as a whole marking these districts on the map.”
Russian Defense Minister Army General Sergei Shoigu said on February 21 that the exact map with the separation of the moderate opposition and terrorists might appear already in the imminent future.