Pederson refers to finalizing the Constitutional Commission drafting

The United Nations special envoy to Syria, Geir  Pedersen has said that he was putting the “finishing touches” for the formation of a committee to discuss the Syrian constitution, in line with the UN Resolution 2254.

The UN mission has released photos of Pederson’s meeting with the Syrian government representative to the United Nations Bashar Jaafari in New York city, and indicated that he would hold further meetings in the future.

The mission published through its account on “Twitter” on the twenty-first of this month, that Pederson will resume contact with all concerned parties with the Syrian issue for a better future for all Syrians, stressing that he has completely resumed his activities because he has been ill.

The UN special envoy to Syria has had an emergency in his eye, which stopped him from resuming his duties regarding the Syrian issue during the past period.

“Although the work is about to finish, in fact we are one step away from finalizing the drafting of the Constitutional Commission,” the Russian President spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on 13 August.

During a press conference with the Turkish President Erdogan in Moscow on Tuesday, the Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed the continuation of works on forming a committee to discuss the Syrian constitution, hoping to start its work in Geneva soon.

The formation of the Constitutional Committee to draft a new constitution for Syria was raised for the first time at Sochi Conference on January 30 last year, and it was agreed to be formed by the representatives of the Syrian government and the opposition to reform the constitution in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolution 2254.

The Committee consists of three lists, the Syrian Government, the Syrian opposition, represented by the “Syrian High Negotiation Committee”,  and the list of civil society, which was selected by the United Nations, while each list includes 50 names.

A dispute has taken place over the past months between the parties regarding six names in the civil society list, prior to the announcement of the resolution of the dispute amid expectations of the approaching of its formation.

As a result of the statements made by the parties, the committee was expected to be formed at Astana talks on 1 and 2 August.

But the participants at the talks had only confirmed their readiness to facilitate the convening of the Commission as soon as possible, amid expectations to be announced at the tripartite summit which is scheduled to be held in Istanbul on September 11 between the leaders of Turkey, Russia and Iran.