Geneva II Conference on Syria

Turkey, Russia and Iran are set to meet in Astana in the middle of next month to seek a cessation of hostilities in Syria as part of a meeting that is being dubbed as a "confidence-building step complementary to the Geneva process," a Foreign Ministry official told the Hürriyet Daily News on Dec. 23.  

Peace talks between the warring parties in Syria, which were scheduled to open on Jan. 25, will instead begin in Geneva on Jan. 29 and last for six months, the United Nations' Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura has said.  

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he hoped for "clarity" within 24 to 48 hours on Syrian peace talks that were supposed to have started in Geneva on Jan. 25, and that it was better to delay a few days than to have them crumble at the start.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Jan. 18 that it was not yet possible to confirm that a planned U.N.-organized Jan. 25 peace meeting on Syria would take place involving the Syrian government and opposition, saying that it was up to the United Nations to confirm it. 

Syria is ready to take part in peace talks in Geneva and hopes that the dialogue will help it form a national unity government, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said on Dec. 24 during a visit to Beijing.

Syria's future will be on the table in New York on Dec. 18, as world powers meet to find a peaceful solution to the civil war in the country that has been raging for over four years. 

The latest round of the Vienna talks for negotiations on the conflict in Syria will be held in Vienna on Nov. 14, with Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlio?lu attending the meeting from Turkey.

The main Western-backed Syrian opposition group has begun a three-day meeting in Istanbul to discuss a range of issues, including a Russian initiative to hold peace talks in Moscow to broker a resolution to Syria's civil war.

The Syrian National Coalition is also expected to elect a new president during the closed-door proceedings that opened on Jan. 2 in Istanbul.