Major powers seek to hold Sochi congress for Syria

ASTANA (Kazakhstan): Major powerbrokers agreed to hold a peace congress for Syria in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi next month after previous attempts to hold the conference collapsed.

Sochi will host the Congress of National Dialogue on Syria on Jan 29 and 30, said a joint statement released on Friday, after two days of talks spearheaded by Russia and Iran, both key backers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, and rebel-aligned Turkey. The congress will see “the participation of all segments of Syrian society”, said the statement released in the Kazakh capital Astana.

“To this end, three guarantors will hold a special preparation meeting in Sochi before the congress on Jan 19 and 20,” it added, referring to Russia, Turkey and Iran.

But a list of prospective participants was not released and the opposition did not immediately confirm participation.

A previous attempt to convene the Sochi congress last month failed following a lack of agreement among would-be participants. Turkey has said it would oppose to any talks involving the Kurdish YPG militia of the Democratic Union Party.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had been hoping to convert Moscow’s game-changing military intervention in Syria into a political settlement on his terms.

Last month, he convened the leaders of Turkey and Iran in Sochi to discuss the plan for the peace conference. While both Russian officials and Assad have spoken enthusiastically of the plan, rebel representatives have been wary and the United Nations has yet to endorse it.

Head of the Syrian government delegation Bashar al-Jaafari said on Friday that the congress would “pose a basis for dialogue between the Syrians” and confirmed that his government would attend. AFP