Syria’s Constitutional Committee to meet after air service bans are lifted — UN envoy

UNITED NATIONS, May 18. /TASS/. Syria’s Constitutional Committee will be able to meet only after bans on air services are lifted, United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen said on Monday at a UN Security Council videoconference. "We know that the crisis in Syria will not be resolved by a new constitution alone," he said. "But if the Constitutional Committee could work seriously, it could build trust, make an important contribution to a political settlement, and be a door-opener." "I am ready to convene a third session of the Small Body of the Constitutional Committee in Geneva as soon as global travel conditions allow. We do not know when that will be. But let me stress, as both co-chairs have affirmed to me, the importance of a substantive third session on the agreed agenda and the equal importance of there being no preconditions to moving on to other items of the constitution in subsequent sessions, consistent with the mandate and Terms of Reference and Core Rules of Procedure," he stressed. US Permanent Representative to the United Nations Kelly Craft accused the Syrian government of being unprepared for an online meeting of the committee. By now, the Syrian Constitutional Committee has had two sessions, with the latest one being held in Geneva on November 25-29, 2019. The government and opposition delegations however failed to agree the agenda and the meeting was not held. Read more