FNA- Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi underlined that his country is still opposed to the US representatives' participation in the next round of Syria talks in Kazakhstan's capital city in May.

"Iran's position since day one has been on this basis that the Astana conference should be limited to three countries (Iran, Russia and Turkey)," Qassemi said on Sunday.

He added that increasing the number of countries participating in the Astana meeting can harm the quality of the negotiations.

Asked about Iran's position on Kazakhstan's invitation of the US to Astana talks, Qassemi said Tehran is opposed to the presence of new countries in the meeting.

Kazakhstan�s Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov said earlier this month that the countries acting as the guarantors of the Syrian ceasefire began holding talks on the participation of the Syrian armed opposition in the international meeting in Astana.

"The issue of the Syrian armed opposition�s participation is within the competence of the guarantor countries. During the previous rounds of the negotiations, Turkey did its utmost to make sure that the armed opposition groups take part in the talks here," Abdrakhmanov noted.

Kazakhstan�s top diplomat also noted the consolidation of stances of all the parties concerned to strengthen both the Geneva and Astana negotiation processes.

"The consolidation of the positions of all parties concerned is underway on the need to strengthen both the Geneva political settlement process and the Astana platform where the cessation of hostilities is discussed," Abdrahmanov noted.