Astana talks on Syria normalization yield little progress.
The 20th round of the Astana peace talks began in Kazakhstan with normalization between Turkey and Syria high on the agenda. However, there were few signs of progress, as Syria’s assistant foreign minister repeated his president's line that ties with Turkey could not be mended until Ankara fully withdraws its forces from large swathes of northeast Syria. Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad is feeling buoyed by his recent reintegration into the Arab League and is apparently in no mood for compromise, despite pressure from the Kremlin to shake hands with Ankara.