Astana

Iranian officials said Jan. 18 that they were strongly opposed to the United States joining Syrian peace talks in Kazakhstan next week, local media reported.

"We are hostile to their presence and we have not invited them," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said late Jan. 17, according to the Tasnim news agency, AFP reported.  

Vladimir Putin has dismissed the dossier published last week about alleged links between Moscow and Donald Trump, describing the people who ordered it as “worse than prostitutes”.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Jan. 17 that Moscow had invited representatives of the incoming U.S. administration to attend upcoming Syria talks in Kazakhstan.

Lavrov said at a news conference on Jan. 17 that Russia is encouraged by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's focus on combating terrorism.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) remain Islamist at heart. This is more apparent today in Turkey's domestic rather than its foreign policy though. In its foreign policy, there is a clear shift toward pragmatism. 

Syrian rebel groups have announced that they have decided to attend the peace talks backed by Russia and Turkey in Astana, Kazakhstan.

President Bashar al-Assad’s, Russian backed recent victories, especially at the districts of eastern Aleppo set the new diplomatic effort in motion.

Syrian rebel groups have decided to attend peace talks backed by Russia and Turkey in Kazakhstan's capital of Astana to press for the implementation of a widely violated cease-fire, rebel officials said on Jan. 16, Reuters has reported. 

Turkey and Russia have decided to invite the United States to Syria peace talks due to be held this month in the Kazakh capital Astana, Turkey's foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Jan.14.

Çavuşoğlu also reiterated that Turkey remained opposed to the inclusion of the People's Protection Units (YPG) in the peace talks.

Russia has agreed that the United States should be involved in talks on Syria's political future slated to take place in the Kazakh capital of Astana later this month, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Jan. 12.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, discussed Syria over a phone call on Jan. 12 before scheduled peace talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana, and hours after Putin talked with his Kazakh counterpart. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan discussed broadening a ceasefire in Syria across the country with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin by telephone on Jan. 12, according to sources in the presidential office. 

The two leaders discussed Syrian peace talks planned to be held in Kazakhstan and bilateral relations, the sources said.