TEHRAN – Hossein Jaberi Ansari, a senior advisor to the Iranian foreign minister for political affairs, has met with the outgoing UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura.

The meeting was held ahead of the 11th round of talks on the Syria crisis, which began in the Kazakh capital of Astana on Wednesday.

The two sides discussed the latest developments in establishing the constitutional committee that will rewrite Syria’s constitution, according to Mehr.

Earlier, Jaberi Ansari met separately with Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal, Syria's permanent representative to the UN Bashar Jaafari, who represents Damascus at the talks, and Russian president's Special Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev.

Representatives from the Syrian government and opposition groups, as well as senior officials from Iran, Russia and Turkey are meeting in the Kazakh capital as part of efforts to find a permanent political solution to the Syrian crisis.

Representatives of Jordan and the United Nations are also expected to attend as observers.

The talks will mainly focus on the situation in the de-escalation zone set up in Syria’s northwestern Idlib Province and the creation of a constitutional committee in the war-torn country.

Issues such as confidence-building measures between Syria’s opposite sides, fight against terrorist groups and the return of Syrian refugees to their homes are also on the agenda of the two-day negotiations.

The Astana talks have so far resulted in the return of a succession of militant bastions to the government fold, the establishment of safe zones across Syria and the movement of civilians to those regions.

The 10th round of the Astana Peace Process was held in Sochi, Russia, in July.

MH/PA