Syrian government 'ready' for prisoner swap with rebels

EghtesadOnline: The Syrian government signaled on Monday that it was ready to agree to prisoner swaps with rebel groups, a confidence-building measure that might help both sides prepare to attend peace talks.

News ID: ۷۳۹۸۱۷

14 February 2017

The government is "continuously ready" for such an exchange with rebel groups, "particularly in the framework of efforts being made for the coming meeting in Astana", a news flash on the state-run Al Ikhbariya TV station said, citing an official source.

Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons, reporting from the Turkish city of Gaziantep along the Syrian border, said it was "difficult to know how significant this is because there have been prisoner swaps in the past".

Russia, Turkey and Iran - who created a trilateral mechanism to enforce the fragile ceasefire in Syria last month in Astana - are set to meet again in the Kazakh capital later this week, according to ILNA.

The Kazakh foreign ministry said over the weekend that the Syrian government and rebel delegations had been invited to attend the meetings, set for February 15-16.

The meetings in Astana were originally aimed at consolidating the truce in Syria, a nationwide halt in the fighting established late in December that has steadily fallen apart over the past month.

The Astana talks were also meant to pave the way towards peace negotiations Geneva, tentatively set to begin on February 20.