DUSHANBE, 15.06.2017. /NIAT «Khovar»/. The Astana talks on Syria are extremely important and useful for the cessation of hostilities in the country, United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura told in Oslo during a joint press conference with Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende, TASS reports.

«Astana is extremely important, extremely useful for this type of cessation of hostilities which we now call de-escalation,» he said. «And we are all behind it because that is what the Syrian people ask,» de Mistura added.

The UN envoy also said that his team of UN experts assisted in arranging the Astana meetings, sharing with the hosts the United Nations’ peacemaking experience gained in the past 70 years.

De Mistura participated in the international meeting on Syria which took place in Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana on May 3-4.

However, the UN envoy declined to confirm that he would come to Astana in early July when the fifth round of talks is scheduled to be held.

«Normally I would tell that to the host rather than to the press,» he noted.