The Constitutional Committee is valueless , Syrian opposition figure says

DARAA, Syria (Noth Press) – On Tuesday, the former member of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, Ibrahim al-Jebawi, said his withdrawal from the committee came after he was convinced that it is valueless.   

In a televised interview, al-Jebawi announced his withdrawal from the Syrian Constitutional Committee yesterday.

“The Russian envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev’s statements assured my previous convictions and let me withdrew,” he told North Press.

“The Constitutional Commission had no values after Lavrentiev’s statements and before that, the statements of the UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pederson regarding the step-for-step policy,” al-Jebawi added.

On December 21, Lavrentiev referred to the outcomes of the last session of the Constitutional Committee saying, “They were very modest, but the parties were able to sit on the negotiating table, and the participants managed to talk face to face”.  

For his part, on December 12, Pedersen said, “I think there is possibility to start revealing what I call step-by-step approach that means to bring to discuss a specific accurate step in hope of building trust”.

In an exclusive statement to North Press, al-Jebawi pointed out that there is no hope of the Constitutional Committee work and nothing will be achieved through this committee after Lavrentiev’s latest statements.

Earlier today, Lavrentiev stressed, “If somebody pursues the aim of creating a new Constitution for the sake of changing the powers of the Syrian president and thereby trying to change power in Damascus, this road leads nowhere”.  

Al-Jebawi indicated that the Constitutional Committee failed in the last six session as did in the previous five ones.

The former member of the committee affirmed that “the Syrian government and its Russian supporter are responsible for the committee failure and prevented any progress”.  

“The Syrian government did not involve actually in the Constitutional Committee’s work and did not accept any schedule, and that was with a Russian support.”  

The Constitutional Committee did not achieve any progress for more than two years and it is in its place, according to al-Jebawi.

The Constitutional Committee was formed on October 1 ,2019 and has 150 members divided into 50 member of the Syrian opposition, 50 of the Syrian government, and 50 of independent figures and from the civil society organizations.  

The mission of the current committee is to amend and write down a new constitution for Syria. The heads of the committee are  Hadi al-Bahra from the opposition and Ahmad Kazbari from the Syrian government.

Reporting by Ihsan Muhammad