Russian, Turkish and Iranian representatives of guarantor states kicked off on Thursday the first day of meetings in the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan to resolve disputes over priorities in Syria, such as the fate of Idlib, the constitutional committee and a swap deal between the regime and opposition. The two-day meetings, known as the Astana talks before the Kazakh capital’s name was changed to Nur-Sultan in March, were attended for the first time by new UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen. The presence of the UN envoy aims to expand the discussions on the release of prisoners and abductees and the establishment of the UN-sponsored constitutional committee, based on Security Council Resolution 2254. Sources said Thursday that the meeting of high-level officials from the three guarantor states, in the presence of representatives from the regime, the opposition and the UN, aims to prepare for a Russian-Turkish-Iranian summit in the near future. As part of Thursday’s 12th round of talks in the Kazakh capital, Russian President’s Special Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev held a meeting with the Iranian Foreign Minister’s Senior Assistant for Special Political Affairs Ali Asghar Khaji. “The joint work over long years will continue between our two delegations and we are coordinating our stances. “We pay great attention to the meeting with the Syrian delegation ahead of the trilateral meeting with the Turkish delegation,” Lavrentiev said at the beginning of the meeting. Russian and Iranian representatives in Nur-Sultan were keen on coordinating their stances before launching any general meetings, due to the accumulation of several pending files, particularly the priorities of required actions in Syria in the next phase. Russia remained silent on Thursday over the content of bilateral and tripartite meetings held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. A final statement is expected to be released on Friday and could include results of talks concerning the Syrian constitutional committee, the situation in Idlib and the file of hostages.