ASTANA, January 24. /TASS/. The mechanism to monitor the ceasefire in Syria will be working in Astana, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said on Tuesday.
The decision to establish, based in Astana, most likely, a mechanism, that would be able to control or at least address those issues is quite an achievement," he said.
The first meeting on the mechanism to monitor compliance with the ceasefire in Syria will be held in Astana at an early date, de Mistura said.
He noted that meetings focusing on the issue will be held as part of this mechanism but declined to specify the dates. "I also take note of the reference that was taken place in the joint statement about the usefulness of the Astana platform for specific issues," he added.
De Mistura said he plans to brief the UN Security Council on the preparations for the Syria settlement talks due in Geneva in early February.
"I’ll be proceeding to New York early next week to consult the secretary general Antonio Gutierrez and brief the Security Council as part of my intensified preparation I had of the February negotiations in Geneva," he said.
De Mistura refrained from saying which delegations he plans to invite to the Geneva talks. The Astana meeting on the Syrian settlement will help create supportive environment for the process of political settlement at the United Nations-brokered intra-Syrian talks:
"This meeting <…> will help to create a supportive environment for the engagement between the Syrian parties politically. This is important in order to help jumpstart the convening of the formal political negotiating process under the UN auspices in Geneva," he said.