UNITED NATIONS, September 20. /TASS/. A meeting in the Astana format will be held on September 22 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, a diplomatic source has told TASS.

"A meeting in the Astana format will be held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Friday. It will be organized by the Iranian side," the source said.

Preparations are underway for the 21st Astana group meeting on Syria, Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian Special Presidential Envoy for the Middle East and Africa and Deputy Foreign Minister, told TASS earlier on Wednesday.

Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana hosted the 20th Astana group meeting on Syria on June 20-21. Representatives of the United Nations, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq attended the event as observers. However, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kanat Tumysh said that the 20th round would be the last one. Still, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the country’s authorities were ready to resume hosting the Syria talks as a gesture of goodwill if there was a joint request by the participating parties.