ПЕРЕГОВОРНЫЙ ПРОЦЕСС ПО СИРИИ В АСТАНЕ: ИТОГИ 2018 ГОДА

Negotiations on the Syrian settlement have been held in Astana (the capital of Kazakhstan) since January 2017. During two years, eleven rounds were held within the framework of the Astana negotiation process with the participation of the Syrian government, the UN and representatives of the Syrian armed opposition. The article provides an analysis of the negotiation process on Syria in Astana in 2018. The authors believe that the Astana's process was initiated as an addition to the Geneva's process, in many respects contributes to its intensification, and also actualizes the most complex problems of the Syrian settlement. The agenda of the negotiation process in Astana in 2018 was the question of convening a Constitutional Committee, which will have to draft a new Constitution of the Syrian Arab Republic. The new feature of the negotiation process in Astana was the absence of the United States, as well as sharp criticism and pressure from the United States, which declare their withdrawal from Syria and present the guarantor countries of the Syrian settlement (Russia, Iran and Turkey) the ultimatum on the terms of convocation of the Constitutional Committee - impracticable in time. Thus, the United States is trying to get an initiative in the political settlement of the Syrian crisis and the post-conflict development of Syria