Astana Platform

• April 9, 2015. At a press conference during the Syrian negotiations in Moscow, Cassis called on Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev to accept the Syrian opposition for a new round of talks ^[2] for Kazakhstan’s neutrality and good relations with permanent members of the UN Security Council. ^[3]
• April 21, 2015: Nazarbayev is hosting a new round of negotiations between the Syrian opposition forces. ^[four]
• May 1, 2015: Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Erlan Idrisov and Cassis created a political platform for gathering members of the Syrian opposition in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, which will later be known as the “Astana political platform” ^[5]
• May 25-27, 2015. The first round of negotiations mediated by Idrisov. ^[6]
• May 28, 2015. Opposition forces make a joint statement calling for a gradual political change of power, the withdrawal of all foreign fighters involved in the conflict, and the release of all political prisoners. They also asked Kazakhstan to agree to accept them again for a second round of negotiations. ^[7]
• September 17-18, 2015: The Center for Political and Foreign Affairs (CPFA), led by Fabien Baussart , organizes a conference entitled “Kazakhstan Peace Talks” with the government of Kazakhstan in Astana. ^[8] The conference was attended by numerous Nobel Peace Prize winners and other well-known politicians, Kazakh politicians, including President Nazarbayev, Fabien Baussar and Randa Cassis. ^[9] During the conference, Cassis asked Nazarbayev to hold a second round of negotiations in October, which he accepted. ^{[10] [11]}
• October 2-4, 2015: The second round of negotiations between the Syrian opposition forces led by the Secretary of State of Kazakhstan Gyulshar Abdeskalkova and mediated by Baussar and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Askar Musinov. ^{[12] [13]}
• October 5, 2015: Participants in the second round of negotiations release a joint statement calling for reform of the Syrian constitution and the electoral process. ^{[14] [15]}
• February 1 - March 23, 2016: Astana’s political platform was invited by Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy to Syria, to participate in the 2016 Geneva Peace Talks ^[16] along with other opposition forces, including the Moscow platform, the High Negotiation Committee (HNC).) and Cairo platform. ^{[17] [18]}

In March 2017, Astana’s political platform invited numerous Syrian scholars, constitutionalists, and politicians to begin drafting a new constitution for Syria ^{[19] [20]} . The initiative was put forward by Kassis and subsequently supported by the Russian Foreign Ministry. ^[21]

The draft Syrian constitution was completed in July 2017 ^[22] with the help of French constitutional expert Xavier Latour, former Turkish Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis ^[23] and former Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi . ^[24]

On January 13, 2018, Sochi hosted the Syrian National Congress, which brought together numerous representatives of Syrian ethnic groups and opposition forces, including the Astana platform ^[25] to discuss various issues. Cassis emphasized the importance of creating a constitutional committee to facilitate the peace process ^[26] which the UN and Astana’s troika of Russia, Iran, and Turkey subsequently agreed to. ^[27]