Russian, Iranian, Turkish top diplomats, UN envoy begin talks on Syrian constitutional committee

GENEVA, December 18. /TASS/. Talks between the foreign ministers of the three guarantors of the Astana process (Russia, Iran and Turkey) and UN Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura have begun in Geneva, a TASS correspondent reported. The meeting, taking place at the UN office in Geneva, involves Russian top diplomat Sergey Lavrov, his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. The meeting’s participants are expected to finally adopt candidate lists for the Syrian constitutional committee so that it can hold its first session in Geneva in early 2019. On January 30, participants in the Syrian National Dialogue Congress, held in the Russian Black Sea resort of 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 have one-third of seats in the committee. Read more