Russia welcomes resumption of Syrian Constitutional Committee meetings

QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Tuesday, Russia welcomed the resumption of the sessions of the Syrian Constitutional Committee in Geneva, and expressed its hope that the two parties would be able to reach an agreement.

“We certainly welcome the resumption of the committee’s activities and hope that the sides will manage to achieve agreements concerning the constitutional reform,” Russian President’s Special Envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev said on Tuesday. 

“All delegates to the Syrian Constitutional Committee displayed their intent to achieve agreements during the sixth round of talks in Geneva,” Lavrentiev added.  

“Of course, we have certain hopes that we would be able to overcome the previous difficulties and start working on the Constitution itself and achieve certain agreements,” he noted.

The Russian diplomat pointed out that the received “similar signals from the office of the [UN Special Representative on Syria Geir] Pedersen that preconditions of this exist.”

Alexander Lavrentiev and members of the Russian delegation met with UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen and his team in Geneva on Tuesday. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the talks conducted by the Syrian Constitutional Committee.

The Russian delegation will also attend the sixth round of the committee’s meetings.

On October 17, the Small Body of the Syrian Constitutional Committee holds its first meetings in Geneva between the co-chairs of the Syrian government and the Syrian opposition in the presence of Geir Pedersen, UN Special Envoy for Syria. 

The opposition delegation presented the issues of army, security and intelligence, to discuss, in addition to the rule of law, which was presented by the civil society delegation close to the opposition.

While the Syrian government delegation, along with members of the civil society delegation, put forward two items for discussion, namely state sovereignty, and terrorism and extremism.