Kairat Abdrakhmanov

Turkey, Russia and Iran on May 4 signed a memorandum on a Moscow-backed plan to create safe zones in Syria to bolster a fragile truce.

An AFP reporter at peace talks in the Kazakh capital Astana saw the heads of the delegations, representing the three countries sponsoring the negotiations, sign the document.

The preparations for the next meetings on Syria in Astana and Geneva scheduled for May, are gaining momentum. Politicians continue to express their views on the process of the six-year conflict's peaceful settlement.