Formation of Syrian constitutional committee may be complete soon - Lavrov

RIYADH, March 4. /TASS/. The process of forming a Syrian constitutional committee may be complete in the near future, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a joint press conference with his Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir on Monday. "It is hard to give time frames but active work is underway. I hope it will be complete soon," Lavrov said. "We have a clear understanding, shared by all major players that influence the Syria settlement process one way or another, that establishing a constitutional committee was the number one priority," the Russian top diplomat pointed out. Lavrov emphasized that attempts to delay the process, including initiatives to promote alternative options for the political settlement were not in the Syrian people’s interest and did nothing to facilitate the launch on an inclusive process sponsored by the United Nations. The Russian foreign minister thanked Riyadh for confirming commitment to "encourage Syrian opposition members residing in Saudi Arabia to constructively contribute to the political process." Syrian constitutional committee On January 30, 2018, participants in the Syrian National Dialogue Congress, held in Sochi, decided to establish a constitutional committee that would work on the country’s new constitution. The committee is supposed to include representatives of the Syrian government and opposition, as well as civil society members. Each of the groups will hold one-third of seats in the committee. The foreign ministers of the three guarantors of the Astana process (Russia, Iran and Turkey) handed a committee member list to then UN Envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura in December 2018. The ministers also said in a statement that the first meeting of the Syrian constitutional committee was expected to take place in early 2019. However, de Mistura’s position did not make it possible for the parties to agree on committee members. Read more