Last week, Alexander Lavrentiev, Russia’s special envoy to Syria, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin and Defense Ministry officials visited Baghdad, Beirut and Damascus. Formally, the trip can be considered the start of the preparatory stage for a new round of the Astana talks on Syria in the renamed Kazakh capital city of Nursultan. The talks are scheduled for late July and the Russian envoys invited Iraq and Lebanon to participate as observer states.

Moreover, the visit to the three Arab capitals set the stage for a summit taking place this week, June 24-25, in Jerusalem that brings together the security chiefs of Russia, the United States and Israel. The diplomats, at their meetings last week, made it clear to the other Astana parties, especially Damascus, that Moscow wouldn't be concluding any separate deals in Jerusalem with the United States or Israel concerning Iran and its presence in Syria.

The decision to invite Iraq and Lebanon to join the established format of the Astana talks was made public at talks held in April. Lavrentiev told the TASS news agency at that time that Russia and its partners had long pondered which states could be engaged in cooperating over the matter, and that not every state willing to join the Astana format met every criterion.

“Influence or money to rebuild Syria are not a criterion. The criterion is that these countries are Syria’s neighbors. They have common interests and very much common ground. There are quite a number of issues that can be addressed on the sidelines of the forum,” he said.