It is important that Syrian constitutional committee start its work shortly - Putin

SOCHI, February 14./TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized on Thursday the importance of launching the activity of a Syrian constitutional committee as soon as possible. At a Russian-Turkish-Iranian summit on the Syrian settlement, the Russian leader said that in teamwork with Syrian parties and the United Nations, diplomats of the three countries had done major work towards the establishment of the Syrian constitutional committee. "It is important that the committee start its work shortly," Putin said. 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. Lavrov said earlier that that in December 2018, the constitutional committee issue had almost been resolved. A candidate list was made and supported by the Syrian government and opposition. "But later it turned out that someone doesn’t like the list, and it wasn’t the Syrian parties but the western countries. They started to throw obstacles in the path of United Nations officials, seeking to prevent the approval of the list," he noted. "In fact, the United Nations has been facilitating the process but it is up to the Syrians to maintain dialogue, so this kind of blatant interference in a neo-colonial way causes serious concern," Lavrov emphasized. Read more