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Work underway on seven documents on Syria within Astana process

All these documents have been practically agreed but need additional work, Russia’s chief negotiator at the Astana talks on Syria said

ASTANA, July 5. /TASS/. Seven documents on Syria as part of the Astana negotiation process are in the works, they concern the de-escalation zones, Russia’s chief negotiator at the Astana talks on Syria and Presidential Envoy for the Syrian Settlement, Alexander Lavrentiev, said on Wednesday.

"We have finally succeeded in adopting the regulations on the joint working group. Now it has all the powers to tackle the current issues," he said. "Quite a few documents that are expected to be adopted were discussed during the bilateral and trilateral contacts in Astana."

"They concern both the establishment of the de-escalation zones and the creation of various mechanisms that would ensure the operation of these zones," the diplomat said. "A total of seven documents are currently in the works."

"These include a document on setting up a coordination center for monitoring the situation in the de-escalation zones, the mandate for deploying the control forces and the rules for the use of military force by them," Lavrentiev explained. "All these documents have been practically agreed but need additional work, considering the fact that we have not succeed in setting up the de-escalation zones yet. Nevertheless, that’s our goal, and we will seek to achieve it in the immediate future."

"Without the decision on establishing these zones, we cannot effectively approve the package of documents that would ensure the normal operation of these de-escalation zones," the diplomat said.

According to Lavrentiev, these zones exist de facto. "The level of violence in them has decreased substantially, there are isolated violence and confrontation spikes," Lavrentiev stated.