Syrian National Dialogue Congress to be held in Sochi on January 29-30 – Kazakhstan

The Syrian National Dialogue Congress will be held in Russia’s Sochi on January 29-30, TASS quoted Director of the Asian and Africa Department at Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry Aidarbek Tumatov as saying on Friday. The eighth round of the international talks on Syria was set to conclude in Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana on Friday. The dates and the list of participants in the Syrian National Dialogue Congress is being discussed. Among other topics on the agenda are the situation in the Syrian de-escalation zones, particularly in the Idlib area, demining and humanitarian issues. Moscow earlier put forward an initiative to convene the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, saying that the event will not be an alternative to the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva, but is aimed at facilitating the Geneva process.