Report: Lebanon Won’t Attend April Astana Talks

إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية W460

The Lebanese Foreign Ministry reportedly revealed that Lebanon “will not participate in the next fresh round of Astana talks that will take place in Kazakhstan’s capital of Nur-Sultan on April 25-26,” the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported on Monday.

Sources from the Ministry explained that Lebanon “may be present in the next round, if an official invitation was given by the two conferences.”

Regarding the level of representatives’ participation, the sources said in an interview to the paper: “It is usually determined after the distribution of invitations and after checking the level of participation of other countries. Shall the participation take place at the level of foreign ministers, Foriegn Minister Jebran Bassil will undoubtedly take part in it.”

In that regard, Russian Ambassador in Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin reportedly denied knowledge of whether Lebanon would participate in the next round of “Astana”, pointing out that there is no information in this regard and that it is more appropriate to ask the Lebanese authorities on the subject.

Kazakhstan will host a fresh round of Syria talks on April 25-26 in its capital, recently renamed from Astana to Nur-Sultan.

SourceNaharnet
Comments 1
Thumb chrisrushlau 22 April 2019, 18:01

Lebanon's foreign policy can be summarized as, "Foreigners tell us which foreigners to recognize the existence of, and we can't confirm or deny which foreigners are which."