Syrian opposition delegation, Assad in Astana for peace talks

A Syrian regime delegation, headed by its U.N. ambassador Bashar al-Jaafari is scheduled to meet with an opposition delegation of several political advisors and army leaders will attend the peace talks scheduled to kick off in the Kazakh capital on Monday.
The opposition delegation said it would only discuss ways to salvage a fragile Russian-Turkish ceasefire it sees as having been violated chiefly by Iranian-backed militias in Syria.
The Syrian government considers most of the rebel groups attending the conference to be foreign-backed "terrorists", but says it is ready to engage in talks with armed groups that surrender their arms and enter reconciliation deals.
The Syrian regime’s objectives include reaching “common grounds” with other participants, Syrian state news agency Sana quoted Jaafari as saying.
Mainstream rebel groups under the banner of the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) have rejected these terms, saying their goal is to end President Bashar al Assad's rule through a U.N. backed political transition process.
De Mistura on Sunday hailed the talks as a “good initiative” in comments carried by Russian news agencies.