20/01/2017 (Agence Europe) – On Friday 20 January, the spokesperson of the European External Action Service (EEAS), Nabila Massrali, announced that the EU would attend the Astana conference on Syria scheduled for 23 January and organised by Russia, Turkey and Iran. "An official will be present", she explained to the press, but was unable to provide further clarifications as to who the EU's representative would be. When asked by EUROPE about the role of the EU at the conference, Massrali declined to respond, stating only that "once there are more clarifications", the EU would communicate on the issue. The conference is expected to deal mainly with the cessation of hostilities and, as the EEAS spokesperson pointed out, the European Union is not a military player. The UN Special Representative for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, will also be in Astana. (CG)