Politician: Russia Transforms Geneva Process Into Astana Process

Politician claims that Russia has taken over the Syrian peace process, according to North Press.

Majid Ibrahim, a politician, told North Press on Sunday that the Russian presence in Syria has turned the Geneva peace process into the Astana peace process.

He added that the sponsor of the Astana process intervenes whenever UN-led Geneva talks fail in order to rescue discussions from stopping.

He pointed out that the intransigence of the Syrian government delegation and its failure to abide by the constitution, in addition to missing the fifth round of the talks, forced Astana process countries (Russia, Turkey and Iran) to send their delegates to Geneva, hoping that they would save the round from failure.

After a meeting between the Kremlin’s special envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev and the opposition delegation, Lavrentiev asked for the viewpoint of the government delegation to facilitate the work of the Constitutional Committee.

However, the government delegation presented a memorandum, which focused on combating terrorism more than the constitutional contents.

The second item dealt with the demand for the occupation forces to leave the Syrian territories, and that the factional Shia, Iranian and Russian presence is an integral part of the Syrian people.

The memorandum called for cancelling the sanctions imposed on the regime and its supporters, as he stated.

“What is going on is just a waste of time in order not to call for a new round of Constitutional Committee meetings until after the presidential elections,” he noted.