Diyar Güldoğan
30 December 2016•Update: 30 December 2016
By Diyar Guldogan
ANKARA
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev discussed planned intra-Syrian talks in Astana, the Kremlin said on Friday.
The leaders had a phone conversation in which they discussed planned talks on the peaceful settlement of the Syrian issue.
The leaders did not give a specific date for the talks.
Meanwhile, Nazarbayev asked the Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry to be ready for peace talks, the presidency said in a statement.
It said Nazarbayev emphasized the need for "careful" preparation for the negotiations on Syria in the near future.
Putin said on Dec. 23 that Russia, Turkey and Iran had agreed to an earlier proposal to bring together representatives of the Syrian regime and opposition in Kazakhstan.
Nazarbayev previously expressed his "readiness" to provide a platform for talks in Astana to solve the long-standing crisis.
Syria has been locked in a devastating civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity.
Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-torn country, according to the UN.
