UNITED NATIONS, August 29. /TASS/. The Astana format is the most effective international mechanism of settling the situation in Syria and Russia hopes to organize a meeting in this format before the yearend, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said on Monday.
"Security threats for Syria and the entire region come from the remaining large-scale nests of terrorism, who have found shelter on territories in Idlib, on the Euphrates eastern bank and in al-Tanf," he said at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council. "In this context, progress on the track of political settlement in Syria is especially needed now. Bearing this in mind, we held consultations with United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy Geir Pedersen in Moscow, when it was confirmed that it is necessary to continue the UN-brokered direct intra-Syrian dialogue under UN Security Council Resolution 2254."
"We are interested in progress on issues of Syrian settlement on the basis of the corresponding UN Security Council resolutions and documents adopted by the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi in 2018," the diplomat noted. "It is important to ensure smooth work of the Constitutional Committee and it is especially important to ensure maximally favorable conditions for that."
The Russian side, in his words, will continue its efforts to promote the Constitutional Committee’s work so that "the Syrians could reach consent on the constitutional reform without foreign interference."
"In this context, we would like to stress the importance of the Astana format, which has proved its efficiency as an international mechanism for lasting normalization of thee situation in Syria. We hope to organize another meeting in this format in Nur-Sultan before the yearend," Nebenzya added.