Negotiations on fragile Idlib truce begin in Kazakhstan

ASTANA: Negotiators from Iran, Russia and Turkey met in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana yesterday, the Kazakh foreign ministry said, for two days of talks aiming to preserve a fragile 10-week-old truce in northern Syria.

Talks were under way between delegations from the three regional power-brokers as well as the Syrian government and opposition, the ministry said in a statement.

In addition to cooling the conflict around the northern province of Idlib — Syria’s last major rebel and jihadist stronghold — discussions will focus on creating conditions for the return of refugees and internally displaced people, as well as post-conflict reconstruction, the ministry said.

The United Nations will be represented at the negotiations by Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, according to the statement, in what will likely be his last engagement on the conflict before leaving the post.

The 10-week-old Idlib truce deal is hanging in the balance after an alleged chemical attack in the government-held city of Aleppo on Saturday which has triggered retaliatory raids.

The exact circumstances of the purported attack on three districts of the government-held city are murky and bitterly disputed.

The Syrian government of Bashar alAssad has blamed fighters in neighbouring Idlib for the attack, which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said hospitalised 94 people.

The incident has put strain on an already fragile agreement reached in mid-September to fend off a fully-fledged assault on Idlib, which Syria’s regime — backed by Russia and Iran — has said it is committed to re-taking.

More than half of the region is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a powerful alliance led by the jihadists of Syria’s former al-Qaeda affiliate, who have not commented on the Aleppo attack.