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No alternative to Astana format on Syria so far — top Turkish diplomat

Hakan Fidan admitted that "so far, there is no better alternative [to the Astana format] and any proposal would be unacceptable for Turkey."

ISTANBUL, November 23. /TASS/. Turkey considers the Astana format quite acceptable and sufficient for the process of the Syrian settlement as there is no alternative to it as of yet, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said.

"According to our current estimates, the process that was launched in Astana is sufficient for its continuation. <…> Thanks to the Astana process, we have managed to establish dialogue between [Syrian] forces on the ground and a ceasefire has been effective there for many years. What needs to be done is to replace it by a more efficient structural mechanism," the CNN-turk television channel quoted him as saying.

He admitted that "so far, there is no better alternative [to the Astana format] and any proposal would be unacceptable for Turkey."

The armed conflict has been continuing in Syria since 2011. Settlement talks in Astana, known as the Astana format, have been held since 2017. As many as 21 meetings in this format have been held by now. The Astana format is comprised of Russia, Iran, and Turkey as settlement process guarantors, as well as representatives of the Syrian government and opposition, the United Nations, and Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq as observer countries.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in October that he hoped for "constructive steps" in the process of the normalization of his country’s relations with Syria in the near future. According to the Turkish leader, on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan, he asked his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to help so that Syrian President Bashar Assad will answer Ankara’s call for the normalization of relations.

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