Russia, Turkey, Iran and Jordan discuss Syria ceasefire in Astana

Bashar al-Jaafari, the head of the delegation representing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, attends a news conference following Syria peace talks in Astana, Kazakhstan January 24, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

ASTANA - A technical meeting on Syrian ceasefire monitoring opended here on Monday with representatives of Iran, Russia, Jordan, Turkey and the United Nations participating.

The participants agreed that mechanism for effective monitoring the full compliance with the ceasefire was already functioning, Head of Russian delegation and Deputy Head of Main Operations Directorate of General Staff, Major-General Stanislav Gadzhimagomedov said after the meeting in Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan.

"There is Russian and Turkish center of compliance control. We share data about violations every day, analyse them, take measures to eliminate the majority of mutual attacks and relieve the tension," he said.

"The delegations have confirmed their readiness to continue interaction in order to achieve the full implementation of the cessation of hostilities in Syria," he said.

However, as noted by all the participants, the ceasefre efforts were often interfered by international terrorist groups, the general added.

According to him, the mechanism of ensuring full compliance with the ceasefire mode was already in force and the participants of the the peace talks discussed measures of mutual trust building to ensure unhindered humanitarian access to the war-torn areas.

The Joint Task Force on Syria was established in accordance with the outcome of the international agreements on peace talks on Syria, organised in Astana on Jan 23-24. Monday's meeting became the first meeting of the Joint Task Force and the participants agreed to hold the next meeting on Feb 15-16.